A "careless" Tory MP typed in his phone access code in full view of a livestream camera during a committee meeting.
Former junior minister James Morris appeared oblivious as he took out his mobile and keyed in his date of birth during a Health and Social Care Committee meeting on January 31.
The Member of Parliament for Halesowen and Rowley Regis in the West Midlands had just finished questioning Health Secretary Steve Barclay over an abandoned 10-year mental health plan when he made the gaffe.
As the attention of the committee moved to the next speaker, Lucy Allen, he could be seen sitting back in his seat and tussling his hair.
The live camera remained behind him as he took out his phone from his blazer pocket and rapidly typed in 040267, the same as his birthdate; February 4, 1967.
A Commons spokesperson told the Mirror: "James Morris MP was told at the time that he had been filmed on his phone – and he changed his access code straight away."
However, constituent Guy Carson - a former member of the Conservative Party - labelled his MP "careless" and said there were implications he can't be trusted with sensitive data.
Mr Morris, 56, previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Primary Care and Patient Safety from July to September 2022.
Mr Carson, 45, said: "My problem with this is that it displays a gross sense of ignorance and whilst I am sure he doesn't have access to national secrets, it is reckless and provides an opportunity for people with malicious intent to access his phone.
"Previously he was a junior minister so he has been in a position where potentially more sensitive things were sent to him.
"Has he changed his password? Who knows. It's the potential implications. I just think it's carelessness."
He added that those in charge of training MPs about cyber security "should hang their heads in shame".
Mr Carson agreed that MPs should be at the very least told not to use obvious number sequences like their date of birth for their passwords.
Referring to committee meetings being live-streamed, Mr Carson said: "It's almost like the Big Brother phenomenon where you become laissez-faire to this sort of thing."
He went on to say: "I emailed him after I saw this and he has never responded, so he either doesn't care, is too arrogant to say thank you for the heads up, or because, as he's a member of the European Research Group [ERG], he believes that this impregnable fortress called England can't be threatened by malicious state actors who might want to access phones and see messages and glean intelligence.
"I mean goodness knows who on earth wants to see the WhatsApp messages of MPs, it's not like any have recently been released and took over the headlines, especially the infamous ERG WhatsApp group."
The ERG is a research support group for Eurosceptic Tory MPs and has been described as "the most influential [research group] in recent political history".
Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker reportedly used an ERG members' WhatsApp channel to coordinate the Brexit rebellions that ended Theresa May's premiership.
Last month, a tranche of disgraced former Health Secretary Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages from the Covid pandemic were shared by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who co-authored his memoir.
Mr Carson - who has lived in Mr Morris' constituency for 21 years - said: "I started off as a member of the Conservative Party. I'm a floating voter. I don't agree with anything they're [the government] doing at the moment, I think it's atrocious."
The Mirror has contacted Mr Morris' office for comment.
