LONDON — Boris Johnson has said it is “rather humiliating” that he was not targeted by the Westminster honey trapper.
POLITICO first broke the story earlier this month that MPs, staffers and journalists in Westminster had been targeted with unsolicited WhatsApp messages from two phone numbers using the names “Charlie” or “Abi.” The exchanges typically began with flirting and, in several cases, escalated to the sending of explicit photos.
Speaking at an event in Washington DC Thursday, Johnson sounded a little left out as he said he had not been among those contacted as part of the WhatsApp sexting scandal.
Asked by POLITICO whether he had been affected he said: “Not yet! Rather humiliating, nobody has bothered.”
Johnson has form with questions about his personal WhatsApps. He changed his phone in 2021 after the Popbitch website revealed his personal mobile number had been online for 15 years.
He also faced a grilling at the U.K.’s Covid-19 inquiry after it emerged 5,000 of his messages from the first half of 2020 could not be retrieved.
To date, POLITICO has verified 23 people in U.K. politics who received messages via WhatsApp and a further three contacted by “Charlie” on the gay dating app Grindr.
They are all men, generally aged between their late 20s and early 40s, and are a mixture of straight and gay. Among them are Labour and Tory MPs, including a serving minister in the U.K. government. One woman, Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns, has said she was targeted with “identical” wording, but POLITICO has not been able to verify this by viewing the messages.
Johnson is not the only high profile figure to say publicly they have been shunned by the honey trapper. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Leader Keir Starmer have both said they have not received messages from “Charlie” or “Abi.”
Neither the government or the Metropolitan Police, which is leading an investigation aided by intelligence officials, have commented on who could be responsible.
POLITICO reported Friday that the episode is not currently viewed inside government as the work of a hostile state, according to four people with knowledge of the situation.
The post Boris Johnson: ‘Rather humiliating’ not to be targeted by Westminster honey trapper appeared first on Politico.
