Gamblegate suddenly dropped down the news agenda this afternoon following the re-emergence of an earlier scandal: a member of the Labour Party has been arrested in connection with the Westminster “honeytrap“.
London Metropolitan Police have arrested a man, who has not been named but is in his mid-twenties, at a residence in Islington. Police say he is being held in custody on suspicion of “harassment and committing offences” under the Online Safety Act.
In April, Politico revealed that individuals working in Westminster, including at least one Labour MP and one Conservative MP, had been receiving unsolicited flirtatious messages via WhatsApp from two unknown phone numbers.
The messages seemed to come from someone who knew the victims, either through a political event or a mutual colleague. It later transpired that the attacker had stolen profile photos from a Facebook account in an attempt to appear more authentic.
The ensuing conversations are thought to have been designed to solicit explicit images for the purpose of blackmail. William Wragg resigned the Conservative whip in May after admitting he had sent on personal phone numbers of fellow MPs because he was “scared” that the attacker might publish indecent images he had previously sent as part of their conversation.
Nearly two dozen people, mainly staffers, are now known to have been targeted. We do not yet know whether others are being considered for arrest in connection with the attacks.
It is all a rather sordid distraction, of course, from that other Westminster scandal dominating the headlines. Labour leader Keir Starmer today called for a change in “the culture of politics” as the Gambling Commission continues its enquiry into illicit bets on the election date made by MPs, mainly from Conservatives.
Rebutting Liberal Democrat Sir Ed Davey, who has called for a change of the rules on MPs making bets, Starmer put his emphasis on “the behaviour of individuals”. He argued that “self-advancement” had eclipsed a “culture of service” in high politics.
Indeed, former Conservative MP Michael Gove suggested on Sunday that the reputational damage of Gamblegate may be as bad as that of Partygate, which rocked Boris Johnson’s administration during the Covid crisis.
That was around about the same time Conservative MP, Neil Parish, admitted he had watched pornography on his smartphone while waiting to vote in the Commons chamber.
Historians of the last fourteen years of parliamentary politics may well come to agree that the smartphone is the common culprit.
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