Rishi Sunak Defends Handling Of Sexting Scandal As Caller Asks Why William Wragg ‘Had To Sack Himself’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended his handling of the William Wragg sexting scandal amid criticism from a caller that the politician “had to sack himself” because Sunak had shown “a complete lack and failure of leadership.”

Wragg handed over journalists’ and political colleagues’ personal details to an anonymous user who contacted him on gay dating app Grindr, having exchanged explicit and intimate images with the individual. It emerged that the persona went on to target several of those individuals in media and parliament via WhatsApp. Wragg later apologised in a statement to the Times.

The Conservative Party initially allowed him to keep the whip but Wragg chose to resign Tuesday as both vice-chairman of the Tory 1922 committee and chair of the Commons’ public administration and constitutional affairs committee.

Appearing on LBC on Wednesday with host Nick Ferrari, Sunak took questions from listeners when caller Sarah asked: “William Wragg, who put his colleagues and the country’s security at risk, has to sack himself. Doesn’t that show a complete lack and failure of leadership by yourself?”

Sunak, rejecting claims of weakness for not stripping Wragg of the whip, insisted his priority remains on the police’s ongoing investigation into the Westminster honeytrap scam.

He said: “Well, Sarah, as you know, that particular incident is being looked at by two different police forces at the moment. There’s a limit to what I can say specifically about that. There are wider things happening, and he rightly apologised for what happened, and it’s a good reminder to everyone, but particularly those in public life, to obviously be careful about unsolicited messages that they get, because there’s lots of bad actors, as we’re seeing around the world, who are trying to cause damage to our democratic processes.”

Ferrari brought Sarah’s line of inquiry back to the prime minister, he asked: “But when Labour say this is a sign of weakness, that you didn’t, and I know you’re going to refer to police action, but that wouldn’t have prohibited you from taking your own action. Labour say it’s a sign of weakness. You respond how, Prime Minister?”

Sunak replied: “Well, as I said, people can judge me if they want to judge me on that. That’s fine. I accept that. And as it comes to weakness, I mean, Keir Starmer still hasn’t answered any questions properly about what’s going on with Angela Rayner.”

Watch above on LBC.

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