Westminster honeytrap saga begins.
At first, it was assumed that the flirtatious WhatsApp messages received by male MPs were part of a classic honeytrap operation by hostile states like Russia or China. However, security sources are steering us away from this theory, revealing that the whole affair is rather more complex than previously thought.
Status as a media sensation was achieved by the honeytrapper, referred to as “Charlie” or “Abi,” primarily because of the “weird” and particularly troubling nature of the trek – which saw the honeytrapper lure politicians with the hope of sexual affairs, seemingly in an inversion of conventional honeypot operations.
Presented here, is what we currently know, and almost as importantly, what we don’t know, about the affair. It all began in Bournemouth on Saturday, 23 September last year at the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference.
“M-xl,” who identified as a 28-year-old on Grindr, approached two people with questions regarding the “worst thing” they had ever heard MPs do and asking them to share “compromising photos” of others. Many in Bournemouth believed they were being contacted by journalists, rather than hostile spies.
The honeytrapper then re-appeared at the Labour convention in Liverpool a few weeks later, with several attendees reporting engaging with “M-xl” on Grindr but facing more explicit photos by the account. A member of Parliament confirmed that they too had engaged with “M-xl.”
On the election night of the stormy by-elections in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth, the honeytrapper messaged a Parliament worker, calling themselves “Charlie.” And so the machinations of the Charlie-Abi honeytrap continue to revert traditional notions of political espionage in their entirety.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More