Bra tycoon Michelle Mone has been urged to quit the House of Lords for good after taking a “leave of absence” amid accusations over PPE contracts. And Tory leader Rishi Sunak was last night branded “weak” for his failure to strip Baroness Mone of the Tory whip at Westminster.
The Scottish entrepreneur is facing allegations she and her family received nearly £29million from a government PPE contract she recommended to ministers. Labour MP Ian Murray said: “If these allegations prove correct she should resign."
He added: "The circumstances surrounding these PPE contracts gets murkier by the day, and Michelle Mone’s departure raises fresh questions for the government. Labour are forcing a vote on this issue in parliament as we need to get these documents out in the open so we can find out what went wrong and who was responsible.
“The UK deserves so much better than this tired Tory government mired in sleaze, corruption and scandal, who think of nothing when writing off billions and handing contracts to their mates.”
Mone, who founded the Ultimo lingerie firm, was handed a peerage by former Tory Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015. But her political career is in jeopardy over her links to PPE Medro, which secured more than £200million to supply equipment in the early days of the pandemic.
Mone’s husband, Isle of Man-based financier Douglas Barrowman, was paid more than £65million in profits from PPE Medpro, after which the funds were distributed. Leaked bank statements show that one recipient of the funds included an Isle of Man trust that was set up to benefit Mone and her three adult children.
Her office yesterday said: “With immediate effect, Baroness Mone will be taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her.” It is understood she will not have to register any changes to her financial interests if the absence request is approved. However, she is being urged to go further and stand down.
SNP MP Brendan O’Hara said: “The bottom line in this whole affair is that the stench of sleaze surrounding this broken Tory Government has become simply unbearable. The reality is that Baroness Mone should have had the whip removed from her a long time ago while a thorough investigation into her business dealings was carried out.
“Instead, the Tories have turned a blind eye while presiding over an anything-goes culture that has seen vast sums of money given to friends, family and party donors.
“The exact circumstances surrounding Baroness Mone’s case are now the subject of a National Crime Agency investigation, which must be allowed to proceed without hindrance – but it is clearly for her to answer exactly how much money she and her family have made from these contracts, in what circumstances and what tax arrangements were made.”
Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine said: “The public will be rightly appalled that we are still hearing allegations about how many of the Tories’ friends may have cashed in on human suffering. Rishi Sunak needs to suspend the whip for Michelle Mone while these allegations are investigated and commit on public record that everyone in his party fully complies with any investigation.”
Green MSP Ross Greer said: “The litany of scandals engulfing Michelle Mone and the rest of the Tory party show just how broken Westminster politics is. Nothing symbolises that more than the undemocratic outrage of the House of Lords, crammed full of cronies and party donors who use it as little more than a cash cow.
“The whole situation around Mone’s PPE contracts stinks. That she still has the Tory whip is yet another stain on her party’s terrible record on sleaze. Rishi Sunak promised to bring integrity and accountability to government, but has done neither. It looks like he’s protecting his rich mates instead, just as his predecessors did.”
Whitehall sources reportedly claimed the peer lobbied Cabinet Minister Michael Gove and Lord Agnew during the pandemic about getting contracts for the firm PPE Medpro. She allegedly contacted Gove, the then Cabinet Office minister, and procurement minister Agnew on their personal email addresses.
A source was quoted saying she was “rude, abrasive and bullying” when she felt the Government was taking too long to respond. The leave of absence means Lady Mone will not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings, and will not be able to claim any allowance.
Parliamentary records indicate Lady Mone has not spoken in the Lords since March 2020 and her last recorded vote was on April 26 this year. The Lords standards watchdog is probing her over her alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro, and the National Crime Agency is investigating the firm.
If her request for a leave of absence is approved, it will not prevent the Lords Commissioner for Standards from carrying out the investigation and she will be expected to co-operate with the inquiry.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has demanded a clear timetable for publishing PPE Medpro documentation and said Rishi Sunak had been “too weak” to remove the whip from Mone. “The Tories are all out of excuses,” she said. “Ministers must now set out clear timelines on when, where and how this information will be released.
“They can’t keep taking the public for fools by refusing to come clean on what they knew about this dodgy deal. Rishi Sunak was too weak to remove the whip and has left it to Baroness Mone to finally read the writing on the wall.”
Lady Mone has consistently denied any “role or function” in the company, and her lawyers have previously said she is “not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity”. A lawyer for Mone said last month: “There are a number of reasons why our client cannot comment on these issues and she is under no duty to do so.”
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