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Andrew Gwynne and Oliver Ryan were stupid and offensive, but why on earth are police getting involved?

The two MPs were suspended by Labour after being found to have made offensive comments in a WhatsApp group

February 13, 2025 13:52
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Labour MPs Oliver Ryan (left) and Andrew Gwynne (right) have been suspended by Labour for offensive comments in a WhatsApp group
4 min read

When I first rocked up to Parliament nearly a decade ago, as a lowly researcher to an MP, I was given sage advice by an older colleague called Dave.

“Never put anything in a WhatsApp group that you don’t want to end up on the front page of the Daily Mail”, he urged.

MPs Andrew Gwynne and Oliver Ryan could have done with someone like Dave in their lives before the Mail on Sunday revealed they were part of a colourful WhatsApp group, set up by Gwynne, called “Trigger Me Timbers”.

It was presumably named as such because the offensive content in it – which reads like a digital equivalent of the burn book from noughties classic film Mean Girls – would likely be “triggering”.