Harriet Harman accepts Tory MP Kemi Badenoch's hacking apology
Harriet Harman accepts Tory MP Kemi Badenoch's hacking apology
Labour’s Harriet Harman says she has accepted an apology from a Conservative MP for hacking into her website.
Kemi Badenoch said her “foolish prank” took place more than 10 years ago before she was elected to Parliament.
The 38-year-old became MP for Saffron Walden in the 2017 election and in January was appointed the Conservative Party’s vice-chairwoman for candidates.
Former minister for women Ms Harman said on Twitter she had received a written apology from Mrs Badenoch.
Mrs Badenoch had revealed details of the incident in a lighthearted filmed interview with the Core Politics website.
When asked what the “naughtiest” thing she had ever done was, Mrs Badenoch said: “About 10 years ago I hacked into… a Labour MP’s website and I changed all the stuff in there to say nice things about Tories.”
Mrs Badenoch told the Mail on Sunday, which had obtained footage of the interview, it was “a foolish prank over a decade ago, for which I apologise”.
The newspaper quoted an anonymous Tory HQ source who said Mrs Badenoch had gained access to Ms Harman’s website by guessing a password rather than “real hacking”.
Ms Harman served as minister for women between 1997 and 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and is a former deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Source: BBC Politics