James Heale

Six days after his involvement in the honeytrap sexting scandal was revealed, Will Wragg has now resigned the Tory whip. It follows his decision on Monday night to quit his roles as vice chairman of the 1922 committee and the public administration select committee. Wragg had previously announced in late 2022 that he would be standing down at the next election meaning he looks likely to sit out his last few months in parliament sitting as an independent. A statement from the whips' office made clear that Wragg was 'voluntarily relinquishing' the whip. So, why now? Within government there is a sense that the initially supportive reaction of Wragg was somewhat misjudged.

Will Wragg has now resigned as both vice-chairman of the 1922 committee and chairman of the public administration select committee. It follows last week's revelation that he was the source responsible for passing on phone numbers to a source who subsequently tried to 'honey trap' them over text messages. The circle of those caught up in the Westminster honeytrap scandal has continued to expand in recent days, with at least 15 figures now believed to be involved. These people were sent messages from an unknown sender identifying themselves either as ‘Abi’ or ‘Charlie’. Three Tory MPs – Wragg, Andrea Jenkyns and Luke Evans – have already said that they were targeted in a ‘spear-phishing’ attack.

Richard Tice spent this morning fulfilling a role well-known to leaders of smaller parties: defending their vetting procedures amid criticism of unsuitable candidates. The Reform leader was grilled by journalists at a Westminster briefing over the suspension or ditching of at least a dozen election candidates over their social media posts. ‘If you’re going to have a glass on a Friday night, don’t use Twitter,’ Tice told his party’s electoral hopefuls. Voters want more NHS funding; they just don’t want to fund private tax breaks to do this The main topic of the briefing was about health and Reform’s plans to redirect net zero funds to improve the NHS.

Who else was caught up in the sexting honeytrap? That’s the question Westminster is asking today. It follows last night’s revelation that William Wragg, vice chair of the 1922 committee, was the source responsible for passing on MPs’ phone numbers to a man he met on the gay dating app Grindr. This man then used the numbers to target at least a dozen others. Among them are believed to be three MPs including a serving minister, four political staffers, a former Tory MP and two political journalists. They were sent unsolicited flirtatious texts from senders calling themselves ‘Charlie’ or ‘Abi’ in a suspected spear-phishing attack. Two of the MPs are reported to have responded by sharing images of themselves.

With Labour 20 points ahead in the national polls, a lot of Tories have already written off next month’s mayoral contest in the capital. London, they maintain, is a Labour city that occasionally votes Conservative. But supporters of Sadiq Khan and his Tory challenger Susan Hall agree: it’s going to be closer than many think. The mayor’s image is as likely to be found on Conservativeleaflets as on Labour ones Three factors are held by both camps to be at play. The first is the incumbency factor versus ‘time for a change’. Khan’s re-election team has consulted other campaigns which won three in a row; all agreed this was the hardest contest to win. A hat-trick eluded Ken Livingstone, who lost in 2008 despite nearly a decade of prosperity for the city.

The death of three British citizens in an Israeli strike has prompted fierce condemnation from the UK government. In a phone call on Tuesday night, Rishi Sunak told his counterpart told Benjamin Netanyahu that he was 'appalled' by the attack, which killed seven aid workers in a World Central Kitchen convoy. Sunak said that 'far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians have lost their lives in Gaza and the situation is increasingly intolerable.' He is now urging the Israelis to launch a 'thorough and independent investigation into what happened.' The three men killed – James Henderson, John Chapman and James Kirby – were all Armed Forces veterans and their deaths dominate the front pages of the national press today.