Why hasn’t MP William Wragg lost the Tory whip over the ‘honeytrap’ sexting scandal?

Some MPs are puzzled why the senior Tory has escaped harsher punishment, but further investigations could follow, as Archie Mitchell explains

William Wragg admitted sharing colleagues’ phone numbers for fear of intimate images of him being leaked (AP)

Westminster has been rocked by the sensational exposé of a honeytrap sexting scam targeting MPs, political journalists and parliamentary staffers. Senior Tory William Wragg revealed he lay at the heart of the scandal, admitting that he shared his colleagues’ phone numbers for fear of intimate images of him being leaked.

Despite the revelation he had put his colleagues at risk, with two MPs going on to share explicit images of themselves to the scammer, Mr Wragg has kept the Tory whip and remains the MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester.

As police forces and parliamentary authorities investigate the scam, first revealed by Politico, The Independent looks at why Mr Wragg remains a Conservative MP.