Matt Hancock has accused former Scots bra tycoon Michelle Mone of sending him a "threatening" message after a firm she was helping did not secure a deal during the covid pandemic.
The former Tory Health Secretary, who has recently returned from a stint in the I'm A Celeb jungle, claimed the Tory peer was "extraordinarily aggressive" when lobbying to help a company win a lateral flow test contract.
In his new book, Pandemic Diaries, Hancock said Mone "was throwing around wild accusations" because the firm wasn't getting the contracts it deserved.
He wrote: "Baroness Michelle Mone has sent me an extraordinarily aggressive email complaining that a company she's helping isn't getting the multi-million-pound contracts it deserves."
It comes after the Glasgow entrepreneur was urged to repay £29m of taxpayers' cash over PPE deals from a different firm.
Leaked documents released last month suggest Baroness Mone received the money through an offshore trust, which seems to have originated as profits from £200m deals she promoted through the UK Government's VIP lane.
It is claimed £28.8million from the total £65m profits from the deal was moved in October 2020 to a trust, called Keristal, that allegedly has the peer and her children as beneficiaries.
Over 130,000 people have backed a call for her to be booted out the Lords and to repay the cash. Hancock recalled that Mone worked herself into a "complete frenzy" over the deals during the pandemic.
He wrote: "She claims the firm, which makes lateral flow test kits, 'has had a dreadful time' trying to cut through red tape and demanded my 'urgent help' before it all comes out in the media. I am going to blow this all wide open, she threatened.
"By the end of the message, she seemed to have worked herself into a complete frenzy and was throwing around wild accusations. 'I smell a rat here. It is more than the usual red tape, incompetence and bureaucracy. That's expected! I believe there is corruption here at the highest levels'.
"She concluded by urging me to intervene 'to prevent the next bombshell being dropped on the Government'. I read the message again, stunned. Was she threatening me? It certainly looked that way."
Hancock also revealed the company Mone was representing did not win a government contract because it failed to pass the validation tests.
He said he began not replying to the peer: "I will simply not reply... I won't be pushed around by aggressive peers representing commercial clients."
Mone, who became a global name through the creation of the Ultimo bra, has denied the allegations against her and said she did not benefit financially through PPE contracts during the pandemic.
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
