Ex-Labour councillor denies blackmail plot against Tory MP

A former Labour councillor has pleaded not guilty to blackmailing ex-Conservative MP William Wragg in an alleged Westminster honeytrap plot.

Oliver Steadman, 29, has been charged with one count of blackmail and five allegations of improper use of a public electronic communications network, over allegations that he was behind a series of “flirty” messages and explicit images sent to a series of MPs and Westminster figures.

Mr Wragg, who was Hazel Grove MP and an influential backbencher, resigned the Tory whip in April 2024 and stood down from Parliament at the subsequent general election after he admitted giving out the phone numbers of politicians to someone he met on dating app Grindr.

Steadman is accused of being the person who was in contact with Mr Wragg.

At Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, Steadman stood in the dock to enter a not guilty plea to a blackmail charge.

It is alleged that between February 1 and March 31 2024, Steadman “made unwarranted demands in a series of electronic communication network messages for contact telephone numbers of up to 12 individuals from William Wragg with menaces”.

Judge Tony Baumgartner adjourned the case for a three-week trial which is due to start on October 4 2027.

Steadman, who previously represented Labour as a councillor in Islington, will remain on unconditional bail until his trial.

A further pre-trial hearing is due to take place on October 12 2026.

Steadman, who was working for the mental health charity Mind, did not enter pleas on Wednesday to charges of sending menacing messages to Mr Wragg, and sending indecent images to Ben Everitt, the former Conservative MP for Milton Keynes North, Luke Evans who was the Conservative MP for Hinckley and Bosworth, Ross Thomson, the Tory MP for Aberdeen South from 2017 to 2019, and a man called Ben Proctor.