Michelle Mone has hit back at Rishi Sunak over his intervention in the PPE row, insisting ministers knew about her involvement in the lucrative contract from the beginning.
The Tory peer is facing calls to be barred from the House of Lords, with the prime minister insisting today that Downing Street was taking the case “incredibly seriously”.
But Baroness Mone fired off an angry message at Mr Sunak, writing on Twitter/X: “What is Mr Sunak talking about?
“I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the government and the NHS in my dealings with them. They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.”
It comes as The House of Lords standards commissioner received a further complaint over Mone’s dishonesty to the media, according to The Guardian. The watchdog is already carrying out an investigation into the matter.
The row erupted after Baroness Mone, who has repeatedly denied that she had profited from the deal, admitted publicly that she stood to benefit from £60m in profit over a PPE contract signed at the height of the Covid crisis.
The Ultimo bra tycoon, who was made a peer by then Conservative prime minister Lord Cameron in 2015, said in a BBC interview on Sunday that she was “sorry” for denying her links to PPE Medpro, a consortium led by her husband which was awarded government contracts worth more than £200m to supply PPE after she recommended it to ministers.
Michelle Mone’s interview has reignited the row over PPE procurement— (PA)
But she added: “I don’t honestly see there is a case to answer. I can’t see what we have done wrong.”
The interview with Laura Kuenssberg, the former BBC political editor, was part of a PR drive by Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman to fight claims of profiteering and what they claim are smears by the government.
Asked about her admission on Monday, Mr Sunak said: "The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we're pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters.
"That's how seriously I take it and the government takes it. But it is also subject to an ongoing criminal investigation. And because of that, there's not much further that I can add."
It came as Sir Keir Starmer said Baroness Mone should be expelled from the upper chamber and called on the government to make a statement on the situation in the Commons.
He added: “I think this is a shocking disgrace from top to bottom. And, as every day goes past, there are more questions that need to be answered. The government needs to come clean.”
The Labour leader piled pressure on ministers to answer “serious questions” about what they knew, including who started the conversations with Baroness Mone in the first place.
He followed Tory peer and energy efficiency minister Lord Callanan who said Baroness Mone should be removed from the House of Lords or quit, adding: “I would hope that she would not be coming back”.
She has taken a leave of absence from the Lords for more than a year as she bids to “clear her name” over the scandal and despite No 10 claiming she had lost the whip, she remains a Tory peer and is free to resume her membership of the Lords.
However, it emerged on Monday that she was no longer a party member.
Michael Gove has been urged to answer questions in the Commons over the scandal— (PA)
Energy secretary Claire Coutinho told LBC Radio: “At the moment she’s on leave, and I think considering everything that has come out she’ll want to consider that position very carefully.”
To be kicked out of the Lords, its conduct committee would have to recommend she be expelled before fellow members voted on the punishment. But even when removed, former members keep their titles, meaning that if she were expelled she could remain Baroness Mone.
The peerage itself can then only be removed by an act of parliament, such as the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 which was used to to remove British peerages from “enemies” of the UK during the First World War.
Baroness Mone’s comments were later rejected by Tory former health minister Lord Bethell, who replied that she “wasn’t ‘honest’ about her financial interest to me”.
He went on: “She didn’t explain ‘from the very beginning’ about her financial ‘involvement’.” And he added that it was not in her register of financial interests as a member of the House of Lords.
Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Baroness Mone claimed her life had been “destroyed” by allegations about their PPE profits, even though “we’ve only done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren’t involved”.
She suggested her involvement had been approved by Mr Gove, then chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. She said: “I just said, ‘We can help, and we want to help.’ And he was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is amazing’.”
Doubling down on those claims, Baroness Mone on Monday accused Mr Gove and the Department of Health permanent secretary Sir Chris Wormald of wasting money, claiming they approved the purchase of five years’ worth of PPE, despite a remit to build up only five months’ worth. “They oversaw huge waste in PPE contracts. They have both had questions to answer for a very long time,” she added.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has called on Mr Gove to answer questions following her claims.
Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman on Sunday admitted that a 30 per cent profit had been made on the contract, around £60m— (BBC Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg)
In a letter to Mr Gove, he said: “This series of events has led to civil litigation and a National Crime Agency investigation. Yet these ongoing matters should not preclude you from addressing questions about your own involvement and the role of the government.
“Events so far expose a shocking recklessness by the Conservative government with regard to public money, and a sorry tale of incompetence in relation to the so-called ‘VIP Lane’ for procurement during the pandemic.”
Baroness Mone she denied she had bought a yacht with the money and insisted the cash was her husband’s money.
“It’s not my yacht, It’s not my money,” she said. “That cash is my husband’s cash, it’s just like my dad going home with his wage packet on a Friday night and giving it to my mum. So she’s benefiting from that as well, but that cash is not my cash and is not my children’s cash. If one day, God forbid, my husband passes away before me then I am a beneficiary as well as his children and my children.”
She also insisted if he divorced her she would receive nothing.
The astonishing interview came days after Baroness Mone appeared to fight back tears in a film about the case – funded by the company at the centre of the scandal. Two leading experts who appeared in the film have since come forward to say they would not have taken part had they been told its focus or funding.
PPE Medpro has been under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) since May 2021, with search warrants executed at Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman’s homes in London and the Isle of Man as well as the firm’s offices.
The NCA is investigating “suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro”. The government has also launched legal proceedings against PPE Medpro over £122m worth of gowns the Department for Health and Social Care believes were not fit for use.
