Hunt: apology from Wragg over ‘spear-phishing’ cyber-attack was ‘courageous and fulsome’

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PA Media reports that the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, appears to have given his support to William Wragg, who has reportedly admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on a dating app.

Wragg told the Times that he gave the information after he had sent intimate pictures of himself, saying he was “scared” and “mortified”. Leicestershire police have launched an investigation in response to reports that explicit images and flirtatious messages were sent to MPs as part of an alleged “spear-phishing” attack.

Speaking to broadcasters, Hunt said Wragg’s apology was “courageous and fulsome”. He told the media:

The events of the last few days have been a great cause for concern. The MP involved has given a courageous and fulsome apology.

But the lesson here for all MPs is that they need to be very careful about cybersecurity, and indeed it is the lesson for members of the public as well, because this is something that we are all having to face in our daily lives.

Asked earlier today about the situation during the morning media round, Treasury minister Gareth Davies said: “It is extremely troubling,” while appearing to indicate that Wragg would continue to sit as a Conservative MP.

He told Times Radio Wragg “is continuing as a Conservative MP, and it’s right that there’s investigation into what happened. He’s rightly apologised, and, as I say, that’s a matter for Will Wragg and the party generally.”

Davies also said that “we are alive to any threat that can occur against MPs” and that “anybody watching that feels they’re in a similar position, if they ever feel like they’re being compromised or blackmailed, they should report that to the police.”

Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, Ellie Reeves, said “it is very concerning in terms of MPs’ safety” while urging anybody with any information to go to the police.

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Speaking to broadcasters, Hunt said Wragg’s apology was “courageous and fulsome”. He told the media:

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The events of the last few days have been a great cause for concern. The MP involved has given a courageous and fulsome apology.

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But the lesson here for all MPs is that they need to be very careful about cybersecurity, and indeed it is the lesson for members of the public as well, because this is something that we are all having to face in our daily lives.

\n

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Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, Ellie Reeves, said “it is very concerning in terms of MPs’ safety” while urging anybody with any information to go to the police.

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The prime minister has reacted to news that NHS consultants in England have voted to accept a new pay deal from the government, after a dispute which lasted a year and during which consultants took strike action.

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Rishi Sunak posted to social media to say:

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I’m pleased NHS consultants have accepted this deal. This is excellent news for patients. We can now continue making progress towards our goal of cutting waiting lists, which have fallen for the fourth month in a row.

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Sunak made cutting waiting list times in England one of his five key pledges at the beginning of 2023, and it was one that he failed to meet. The government have repeatedly tried to blame strike days for the waiting list in England rising.

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Health is a devolved issue and this pay dispute has only related to England.

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Overnight Amy Gibbons at the Telegraph picked through the bones of Michael Gove’s recent appearance on the Ed Balls and George Osborne podcast, pulling out the line that Gove said he showed “moral cowardice” by leading David Cameron to believe he would take a back seat role during the Brexit referendum.

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Asked about Cameron feeling betrayed, it quotes Gove saying:

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I do think that I could have been clearer earlier. I think that was an example of, on the one hand, cowardice on my part, moral cowardice, on the other hand, a recognition that perhaps there’s this feeling in politics, perhaps something will turn up, perhaps this moment won’t come when we have to make that decision. But I think David, entirely fairly, should have expected me to have been more upfront earlier.

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Gove also said he had not expected to take such a prominent role in the Leave campaign himself.

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I didn’t want to take part in the debates, the television shows that I ultimately took part in, or play as prominent a role. One of the arguments was “if you don’t do this, they’ll have Farage on”.

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Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves (not to be confused with Ellie Reeves who was doing the media round today) is expected to be campaigning for May’s local elections – and, let’s face it, the general election – in Blackpool today. It is also where there will be a 2 May byelection in Blackpool South after the resignation of former Conservative MP Scott Benton.

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Reeves will be unveiling an advert criticising what Labour is calling a Conservative “tax double whammy” that it claims will leave families £870 worse off.

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Ahead of the visit she said:

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Every time Rishi Sunak goes on the television claiming he is cutting taxes, he is insulting the intelligence of hard-working families.

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Under the Tory tax double whammy, for every extra £10 people are set to pay in higher tax they are only going to get £5 back, and the average household will still be £870 worse off.

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Working people can see through the Tories’ tax con. It’s giving with one hand and taking with another.

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After 14 years of working people footing the bill for Tory chaos, it’s time for change.

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Rishi Sunak should end the chaos, call an election and give the public the chance to vote for a changed Labour party that will change Britain for the better.

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Her statements come ahead of the weekend that national insurance changes come into effect. The main rate of employee national insurance will be cut from 10% to 8% from 6 April – the first day of the 2024-25 tax year. However, at the same time the freeze in income tax bands pulls people into higher tax brackets over time as their pay increases.

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Hailing the change, prime minister Rishi Sunak has again talked up plans to eventually abolish national insurance, issuing a statement saying:

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Hard work is one of my core values, and the progress we have made on the economy means we can reward work with a tax cut worth £900 for the average earner.

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This marks the next step in our plan to end the unfairness of double taxation of work by abolishing national insurance in the long term.

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Labour has criticised the plan to abolish national insurance, casting it as an unfunded tax cut.

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Incidentally, the Conservatives are defending a majority of 3,690 in Blackpool South.

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Labour has called for the UK government to make a statement in the house about the legal advice it has received concerning Israel, with a spokesperson saying they have “serious concerns about arm sales to Israel” at the current time.

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Speaking on Sky News, Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, said “I think the government needs to make a statement to the house on this issue and be held to account by MPs.”

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She told viewers:

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I’ve got really serious concerns about arm sales to Israel. That’s why we have repeatedly called for the government to publish the legal advice that it’s received on this.

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If the legal advice says that there is a clear risk that UK arms are being used to commit or facilitate breaches of international humanitarian law than arms sales should stop immediately.

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But the government have had this advice for close to a month now and haven’t published it. If the advice does say that there are real questions about why they haven’t already acted.

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Ellie Reeves went on to say that Labour were calling for an immediate ceasefire and that hostages need to be released.

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Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the chair of the UK foreign affairs committee Alicia Kearns said the government must suspend arms sales to Israel and claimed ministers were no longer saying that Israel was complying with international humanitarian law, merely that it had the capacity to do so.

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“I believe we have no choice but to suspend arms sales and it is important that the public understands this is not a political decision as some people want to present it as,” she said.

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“Legal advice is advisory so the government can choose to reject it but UK arms export licences require a recipient to comply with international humanitarian law. That is why emergency handbrakes exist in terms of change of circumstances.”

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She added: “There is nothing anti-Israeli, much less antisemitic, in taking a tougher line with the Netanyahu government. The reality is that how Israel prosecutes this war, that is the problem we have. We support their right to self-defence but they are making themselves and us less safe in the way they are doing it.”

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You can read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here.

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UK house prices fell in March for the first time in six months as more costly mortgage deals and continued uncertainty about when the Bank of England would start cutting interest rates hit the property market.

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A typical home now costs £288,430, around £2,900 less than last month, said Halifax, which is part of Lloyds Banking Group. The monthly drop, the first since September, came after a 0.3% gain in February.

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The survey is split into analysis across English regions and the nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Halifax survey shows that Northern Ireland remained the region or nation with the highest house price growth in the UK – with prices up by 4.3% on an annual basis. Properties in Northern Ireland now cost an average of £194,743, which is £7,972 more than a year ago.

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In Wales, annual price growth slowed to 1.9% in March, from 3.9% in February, with the average home now costing £219,213. Scotland house prices rose 2.1% year-on-year to stand at £204,835.

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A rival survey from Nationwide building society showed that the average UK house price fell by 0.2% month on month in March.

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Mortgage rates for borrowers were at 5.55% for an average two-year fixed-rate deal in January as lenders vied for new business.

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Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the Aslef trade union has been doing the media round as train drivers in England begin another series of strikes.

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He rejected the idea that strikes were putting the travelling public off rail transport, saying footfall and revenue were coming back after the pandemic.

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Speaking from a picket line outside Euston station in London, he confirmed to Sky News that there were no further talks scheduled with either train companies or ministers, and said “taxpayer should put their anger where it belongs – with the people that won’t come to the table.”

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He told viewers that train drivers haven’t had a pay increase for half-a-decade, and that:

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In a cost of living crisis, we believe, like all other sectors, that people have a right to increase in pay. The people that we actually work for are declaring hundreds of millions of pounds in profits, paying dividends to their shareholders, but not paying their workers. And this is compounded by the fact that this is a Westminster problem, with a dogmatic government that doesn’t want a resolution and doesn’t care about the travelling public.

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He said support from the public for the strike had been great, adding ““We haven’t had one disgruntled person come up to this line yet.”

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Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, was also on the media round today, and was asked about the reported situation with William Wragg, and essentially limited her comments to saying that “it is very concerning in terms of MPs’ safety” while urging anybody with any information to go to the police. She said it was good that it was being investigated thoroughly.

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Hello, and welcome to our live UK politics coverage for Friday. It is Easter recess in Westminster and in all the devolved governments, so the diary is quite light, although local election campaigning continues in England ahead of the 2 May vote.

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Here are your headlines today …

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Senior Tory MP William Wragg has said he is “mortified” after reportedly passing MPs’ data to a dating app contact

Train drivers in England have begun a three-day series of strikes

The number of households seeking help over energy debt legal action has doubled

UK house prices have fallen for the first time in six months

New powers to stop people protesting come into effect today. Home secretary James Cleverly said they ensure people “cannot continue to cause turmoil unpunished”

The UK’s largest education union has called for an independent inquiry into the rise of sexism and misogyny among boys and young men

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It is Martin Belam here with you today. You can email me at martin.belam@theguardian.com – especially if you have spotted my inevitable errors and typos, or you think I’ve missed something important.

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William Wragg has told the Times that he gave out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on a dating app in what appears to have been a “spear-phishing” cyber-attack.

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Asked about the situation during the morning media round, Treasury minister Gareth Davies said: “It is extremely troubling.”

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PA Media reports he told GB News that Wragg had apologised, and that “we are alive to any threat that can occur against MPs and we have resources in place to tackle that”, adding: “I would just say to anybody watching that feels they’re in a similar position, if they ever feel like they’re being compromised or blackmailed, they should report that to the police.”

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Politico reported that the 12 targets it had confirmed so far included three MPs, two political journalists, a broadcaster, four party staff, a former Tory MP and an all-party parliamentary group manager. The targets include members of the Conservative and Labour parties.

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On Times Radio Davies said Wragg “is continuing as a Conservative MP, and it’s right that there’s investigation into what happened. He’s rightly apologised, and, as I say, that’s a matter for Will Wragg and the party generally.”

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Key events

Filters BETA

PA Media reports that Scotland Yard has confirmed it is in contact with Leicestershire police and parliamentary security “following reporting of unsolicited messages to members of parliament”, amid concerns MPs and their staff could be victims of blackmail, after Conservative MP William Wragg apologised for giving personal details about MPs to someone he met through a dating app.

“We will assess any reports made to us accordingly,” the Met added.

Wragg said he was blackmailed into sharing his colleagues’ phone numbers after sharing intimate images of himself.

The sexting scam has been described as “spear-phishing”, a type of cyber-attack that targets specific groups, and involves scammers pretending to be trusted senders in order to steal personal or sensitive information.

Hunt: apology from Wragg over ‘spear-phishing’ cyber-attack was ‘courageous and fulsome’

Speaking to broadcasters, Hunt said Wragg’s apology was “courageous and fulsome”. He told the media:

The events of the last few days have been a great cause for concern. The MP involved has given a courageous and fulsome apology.

But the lesson here for all MPs is that they need to be very careful about cybersecurity, and indeed it is the lesson for members of the public as well, because this is something that we are all having to face in our daily lives.

Labour’s deputy national campaign coordinator, Ellie Reeves, said “it is very concerning in terms of MPs’ safety” while urging anybody with any information to go to the police.

Health and social care secretary Victoria Atkins has also commented on the end of the NHS consultants pay dispute in England. She said:

I hugely value the work of NHS consultants and I am pleased that, after weeks of negotiations, they have accepted this fair and reasonable offer, putting an end to the threat of further strike action.

Consultants will now be able to focus on providing the highest quality care for patients and we can consolidate our progress on waiting lists – which have fallen for the past four months.

This deal directly addresses gender pay issues in the NHS and enhances consultants’ parental leave options – representing a fair deal for consultants, patients, and taxpayers.

Government figures keep quoting that waiting lists have fallen for four months, which they will argue is clearly heading in the right direction, but nevertheless the figure in January stood at 7.6 million, according to official NHS statistics.

That number could actually be higher, as earlier this week my colleague Tobi Thomas, our health and inequalities correspondent, reported that an ONS survey of about 90,000 adults found that 21% of patients were waiting for a hospital appointment or to start receiving treatment on the NHS. When extrapolated, this equates to 9.7 million people.

Health is a devolved matter so the statistics and the dispute only apply to England.

Dr Vishal Sharma, who chairs the BMA consultants committee, has had this to say about the end of the pay dispute with the NHS in England. He said:

After years of repeated real-terms pay cuts, caused by government interference and a failure of the pay review process, consultants have spoken and now clearly feel that this offer is enough of a first step to address our concerns to end the current dispute.

We’ve reached this point not just through our tough negotiations with the government, but thanks to the resolve of consultants, who took the difficult decision to strike, and did so safely and effectively, on multiple occasions, sending a clear message that they would not back down.

But the fight is not yet over. This is only the end of the beginning, and we have some way to go before the pay consultants have lost over the last 15 years has been restored.

He said that crucially the BMA would be looking to the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration (DDRB) to “utilises its independence to restore doctors’ pay and prevent any further disputes from arising.”

You can read the full story here: NHS consultants accept pay offer, ending year-long dispute with government

Sunak: end of NHS consultant pay dispute is ‘excellent news for patients’

Rishi Sunak posted to social media to say:

I’m pleased NHS consultants have accepted this deal. This is excellent news for patients. We can now continue making progress towards our goal of cutting waiting lists, which have fallen for the fourth month in a row.

Health is a devolved issue and this pay dispute has only related to England.

Steve Brine, Conservative MP for Winchester & Chandler’s Ford, who sits on the health and social care committee in the Commons, has described the announcement that the pay dispute between the government and NHS consultants is over as “really positive news this morning.”

He posted to social media saying “so much to do and huge sigh of relief the NHS can put this behind it.”

We will have a full story on this shortly.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has said its members in England have voted in favour by 83% to accept a pay offer, ending a year-long dispute with the government.

More details soon …

Here is a picture of shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth campaigning today in Blackpool with Labour’s new “Tory tax double whammy” advert.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth campaigning in Blackpool. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Labour have also put out another Sunak-themed tax attack ad.

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It’s time for change.

Vote Labour on Thursday 2 May. pic.twitter.com/qkjxxa3pEv

— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) April 5, 2024

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If you think it all looks familiar, then you are probably as old as I am, as it is a riff on a 1992 Conservative campaign poster when John Major’s election campaign against Neil Kinnock threatened that a Labour win would mean “1. more taxes 2. higher prices.”

A poster for the Conservative party from the 1992 general election. Photograph: The Conservative Party Archive/Getty Images

Gove says he showed ‘moral cowardice’ in not telling Cameron how prominent he would be in Brexit campaign

Asked about Cameron feeling betrayed, it quotes Gove saying:

I do think that I could have been clearer earlier. I think that was an example of, on the one hand, cowardice on my part, moral cowardice, on the other hand, a recognition that perhaps there’s this feeling in politics, perhaps something will turn up, perhaps this moment won’t come when we have to make that decision. But I think David, entirely fairly, should have expected me to have been more upfront earlier.

Gove also said he had not expected to take such a prominent role in the Leave campaign himself.

I didn’t want to take part in the debates, the television shows that I ultimately took part in, or play as prominent a role. One of the arguments was “if you don’t do this, they’ll have Farage on”.

Regular readers of the live blog on the days I am on it will be aware I usually try to find some way to shoehorn in a bit of sport, and today Rishi Sunak has handed me the opportunity. It is the opening day of the county cricket season – which you can follow live with Tanya Aldred here – and the prime minister has been boasting about investment in grassroots cricket with a little animation of a Downing Street branded bat smashing one for six.

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I love cricket, that’s no secret.

So I’m pleased that today we can support even more young people to get into the game.

We’re investing £35 million in grassroots cricket to help over 900,000 young people into playing cricket. pic.twitter.com/mN1rauyOYI

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 5, 2024

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I love cricket, that’s no secret.

So I’m pleased that today we can support even more young people to get into the game.

We’re investing £35 million in grassroots cricket to help over 900,000 young people into playing cricket. pic.twitter.com/mN1rauyOYI

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 5, 2024

The Guardian