Politico reports that the “honeytrapper” implicated in the Westminster scandal actually tried to target LibDem MPs at our last Bournemouth conflict. No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.
“I was at the bar at the Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott [Hotel],” recalls an attendee at Lib Dem conference. He saw a message on gay dating app Grindr from a handsome man in a Levi’s T-shirt. “M – xl” said he was 28 — and that his name was Charlie.
“He was very open about wanting to sleep with MPs,” said the attendee, a former MP’s staffer who was there in a new role. Like others who were targeted, the attendee has been granted anonymity to protect their privacy. “He asked for names of politicians,” the attendee recalls. “He never asked for numbers, but he did ask for names that would be interested [in sleeping with him].”
Reading the report, it seems that the “honeytrapper” was rather unsophisticated (revealing their location as 100 miles away from Bournemouth, for example) and that the attendees who saw the Grindr profile immediately thought it was “weird”.
You can read the full article here.
* News Meerkat - keeping a look-out for Liberal Democrat news. Meerkat photo by Paul Walter
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Lib Dem Federal Conference: use the drafting advice service
Is the market for flats in England/Liverpool dead?
The targeting of journalists is a real threat to democracy
north easterly
Judy Abel
Tristan Ward
John C
5 Comments
Seriously? Is this the level of reporting
No Lib Dem voice has sunk to?
As proof reader to my local party, I finally realise that I have reached the cantankerous stage of old age, since I have no sense of humour about platforms that are happy to dispose of vowels for the sake of effect!
David, it is important that members are made aware that these sort of attacks/traps/scams are not just aimed at the Tories. I assume that no LibDem MPs would be interested in such blatant phishing, but good to remind everyone.
@David It isn’t our report, David. We’ve linked to a report by Politico, a global nonpartisan politics and policy news organization. It is part of the wider story involving an MP which has been circulating in the mainstream media for a few days, and this angle, involving the Bournemouth LibDem conference, has proved sufficiently interesting to our readers for more than 136 to read it so far. You’ll see that the Politico story is quite long and well-researched, and involves the Labour party, as well as the LibDems. It was also covered in the Express, Spectator and Telegraph. At the very least it proves that the LibDems targetted were not as gullible as some Tory MPs.
(Not the Charlie mentioned above!) I’ve also seen this profile before, I think they have been around for longer than just the last conference. Luckily I didn’t have a conversation with the account, but I remember them messaging! Disturbing stuff.