The Conservative MP at the centre of a House of Commons honeytrap scandal has revealed the devastating impact it has had on his career and mental health.
William Wragg stepped down as MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester in April after he passed on the phone numbers of colleagues to a blackmailer.
The 36-year-old, who is gay, fell victim to a scam after using a dating app. He exchanged explicit pictures with someone he met online, only to find himself blackmailed into sharing contacts of fellow MPs.
As a result, several other Tory MPs received explicit images from individuals using the aliases “Charlie” and “Abi” accompanied by flirtatious messages.
He resigned as an MP in May and also left the Conservative Party after an internal investigation accused him of “exceptionally inappropriate and ill-advised” behaviour.
Mr Wragg told the Mail on Sunday that he had gone “off the rails” and started drinking heavily to deal with depression following the scandal.
Discussing how the interaction began, he said that “Charlie” messaged him on the gay dating app Grindr.
He said: “It started simply with "hello" and a brief introduction. He immediately responded and said he recognised me. He said: "You are Will Wragg the MP."
“I said, "Yes I am", and "I hope that is not going to be a problem", and he said, "No, no, not at all".
The relationship grew and they began sharing images - but then the scammer started demanding he hand over contacts. Mr Wragg gave the numbers as he was afraid of what he might do with the images.
He said that he fell into depression after the news became public.
“I came home one evening and I just burst into tears and was shouting and swearing,” he said. “I didn’t feel in control of myself.
“I drank heavily because - and I almost can’t articulate this clearly enough - of an almost loss of agency. I bottled everything up. I didn’t say a word to anybody.”
He said he hit rock bottom at around 4.30am one night.
“I was having very intrusive thoughts,” he said.
“It wasn’t just like feeling down. It was worse than I’ve ever felt, to the extent that I was thinking of the methods I could use to end it all.
“I thought, ‘This is bad’ — but there was just about enough in me that said, "Right, go to hospital", and I’m so glad I did, because that’s when I started getting the help that I needed.
“And, you know, ultimately I think the thought in my head was, "No matter how much pain I’m in at the moment, I can’t put that onto other people, such as my parents and close friends. I can’t".”
Officers later arrested a man in connection to the scandal and Mr Wragg has been signed off work for several months.
His Hazel Grove constituency was won by the Liberal Democrats in July.
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