Nigel Farage has questioned why William Wragg has not lost the whip.
Speaking on GB News, Nigel Farage said: “This is all about standards in public life. MPs have to hold themselves to a higher standard than all the rest of us.
“We are all capable of stupidity. We are all potentially victims of flattery. But if a Member of Parliament sends compromising photographs of his person to somebody who is not quite sure who they are, that is an act of idiocy.
“And idiocy is not, on its own perhaps, a sackable offence. But what is a sackable offence, I think, is to give a private telephone number of public figures to somebody you already know to be a bad actor.
“And what astonished me was everybody was coming out supporting him and I wondered why? Is it because the Conservatives fear a byelection? Is it actually because he's gay?
“Because I tell you what, had this been a late-middle-aged heterosexual man who sent images of himself to a young girl, well over 16 or 18 - I reckon he’d have lost the whip already.
“So I've been pondering what the hell is going on. Well, finally, someone's broken ranks. Andrea Jenkyns, Member of Parliament for the Tories, has said: I too received that WhatsApp message and reported it. It was worded identically mentioning ‘Conference’. Unlike some MPs, I'm not happy with Wragg as a mother to a young child who only recently had threats. It's unforgivable of him to compromise the security of fellow MPs. Action is needed.’
“I agree. The police have announced today there is an investigation. They ought to call Wragg in, but not to give him victim counselling; to find out the truth of how many telephone numbers he's given out and what other information about British politics or the running of Parliament, he's given out.
“For Jeremy Hunt to call him ‘courageous’: courageous is taking on a mugger in the street, not betraying your colleagues.
“I'm not a hypocrite, I haven't lived a blameless life. None of us do. We all do silly things or make mistakes. But I've never ever given out private telephone numbers of anybody, even to the press, who asked questions, let alone to somebody who I already knew was a seriously bad person.”
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