The former Hazel Grove MP William Wragg has described the feeling of “enormous guilt” that washed over him as he realised he had fallen victim to a sophisticated scam designed to target politicians in Westminster
In an interview with the BBC Wragg described how he was having really dark thoughts after the revelations became public and felt suicidal
“I drove around to my parents’ house and said to them: ‘I need to go to hospital’,” he recalls.
That night his mother took him to the local accident and emergency unit. He was stooping as he leant on the front desk. “Have you got a bad back?” the receptionist asked cheerily. “No,” he replied. “I’m suicidal.”
Wragg was amongst dozens of victims of an individual who adopted the identities of ‘Charlie’ and ‘Abi’ and sent flirtatious texts
The 36-year-old approached “Charlie” himself after spotting the profile on gay dating app Grindr.
Asked by BBC reporter Joe Pike how he feels, seven months on from the scandal that ended his career in politics, Mr Wragg said: “I have no bitterness or anger left in me because I felt so wretched and awful in myself.”
He added: “It’s a source of great shame that my time in Parliament ended in this way.”
