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Labour has suspended a party member arrested in connection with the Westminster honeytrap sexting scandal.
The party was notified on Wednesday of the arrest of a member in Islington and moved to administratively suspend the individual, according to people briefed on the matter.
Labour declined to comment citing an ongoing police investigation.
Earlier in the day, the Metropolitan police confirmed a man in his mid-twenties had been arrested on suspicion of harassment and offences under the Online Safety Act.
In a statement the force said the man “was taken into custody where he remains”. It added: “The arrest relates to an investigation being carried out by the Met’s Parliamentary Liaison and Investigation Team following reports of unsolicited messages sent to MPs and others. The investigation remains ongoing.”
This spring Westminster was gripped by an apparent sexting plot that appeared to target a string of male MPs, staffers and journalists working in or around politics.
More than a dozen male targets reported receiving unsolicited messages from a sender calling themselves “Abi” or “Charlie” since early 2023. In some instances the sender sent explicit images and solicited sexual content, and some recipients replied with explicit pictures of themselves.
Targets would often receive texts from an unknown number late at night. Frequently the messages would begin with the suggestion that the sender had met the recipient at a recent event — such as a bar in Westminster, a party conference, or out campaigning for a by-election — and the exchanges would quickly become flirtatious, according to Politico.
Detectives have undertaken extensive inquiries on the matter since April, including taking statements from both Labour and Conservative MPs believed to have received unsolicited messages.
William Wragg, a former Tory MP, quit the parliamentary party after admitting that he provided phone numbers of elected colleagues to a man he was in contact with on Grindr, the gay dating app.
Wragg, who had held a senior position on the powerful 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, voluntarily relinquished the Conservative whip after saying he had been blackmailed over images he had sent to the person.
Wragg previously told The Times: “I’ve hurt people by being weak. I was scared. I’m mortified. I’m so sorry that my weakness has caused other people hurt.”
He had already announced his intention to step down from parliament at the next election when the scandal erupted.
Luke Evans, a Conservative who is standing in the general election, identified himself as a target. He said he had referred the matter to the police after becoming “a victim of cyberflashing and malicious communications”.
Earlier this year Downing Street issued advice to politicians to view all unsolicited messages with scepticism.
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