Labour politician charged over 'honey trap' WhatsApp messages sent to MPs

Oliver Steadman, a former Labour councillor, has been charged with blackmail following an investigation into WhatsApp messages sent as part of a reported “honey trap” exercise targeting politicians, officials and journalists working in Westminster.

Police announced last year they were investigating the messages following a Politico report uncovering how figures in the British political scene were receiving suggestive and tailored messages that developed into sexually explicit conversations, for the apparent sake of acquiring compromising photographs.

The messages had prompted concern about hostile espionage as they came in the wake of a government warning about China’s “malicious cyber targeting” of democratic institutions, although there was no evidence the WhatsApp activity was tied to the alleged Chinese targeting.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on Wednesday that Steadman, 28, was being “charged with one count of blackmail in relation to alleged unwarranted demands for the contact telephone numbers of up to 12 individuals. He has also been charged with a communications offence of improper use of a public electronic communications network, in relation to the same victim.”

Steadman faces “four further communications offence charges, these being the improper use of a public electronic communications network, in relation to four other victims. This relates to the sending of alleged unsolicited indecent images,” added prosecutors.

A spokesperson for Leicestershire Police said the force’s investigation began before Politico’s report, after they’d received “a report of malicious communications after a number of unsolicited messages were sent to a Leicestershire MP.”

Alongside the police, Parliament's security department said it was investigating the messages. It said those who had potentially been impacted were encouraged to come forward for their own protection against blackmail.

Steadman was suspended as a member of the Labour Party after his arrest in June 2024. He resigned as a councillor in Islington, north London, a month later. His first hearing will be at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on November 3.