A former Labour councillor has been charged with blackmail and communications offences in connection with the Westminster “honeytrap” scandal that led to a Conservative MP resigning the party whip.
Oliver Steadman, 28, faces one count of blackmail and a charge of improper use of a public communications network relating to a single victim, the Crown Prosecution Service said. He also faces four further counts of improper use of a public electronic communications network for allegedly sending unsolicited indecent images to four other men working in politics.
The charges follow an investigation by the Metropolitan Police into messages sent via WhatsApp between October 2023 and April 2024. The CPS said the offences related to five victims, all within parliamentary political circles.
The scandal erupted last year after Conservative MP William Wragg admitted he had shared the personal phone numbers of fellow MPs with a man he met on the Grindr dating app. Wragg later resigned the Conservative whip and did not contest his seat at the general election.
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the CPS special crime division, said: “We have decided to prosecute Oliver Steadman with blackmail and five communications offences in relation to a total of five victims working within politics and Westminster.” He added that prosecutors had established there was sufficient evidence and that a prosecution was in the public interest.
Steadman, who was a Labour councillor in Islington and involved in the party’s general election campaign, was arrested last June on suspicion of harassment and offences under the Online Safety Act. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday 3 November 2025 for a first hearing.
