A SCOTTISH university has declined to say if it will revoke an honorary doctorate given to Michelle Mone amid her role in a PPE scandal.
We previously reported that the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) had been urged to strip Mone of the honorary degree it handed to the entrepreneur in 2002, when it was Paisley University.
Mone has been under fire for her role in approaching Tory ministers to secure a contract for firm PPE Medpro during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The firm was awarded £203 million in contracts by the UK Government, with Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman making £60m in profit through the deal.
The Tory peer has repeatedly insisted she has done nothing wrong. She did admit she had lied about her involvement with the firm to the press, but said it was “not a crime” to do so.
She also admitted that she stands to benefit from the Covid contract she helped to arrange during a BBC interview.
Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer and LibDem MSP Willie Rennie, a former Paisley University student, both said Mone should be stripped of her degree following her involvement in the scandal.
“Revoking her honorary degree is both necessary and deserved, so I’d urge the principal and university court to do it as quickly as possible,” Greer said.
He added that the university should not be “tainted by association” with Mone.
Rennie said that Mone had proven she is “no model for students to follow” and backed the call to have the degree revoked.
In response, UWS was reluctant to say if they would strip Mone of her doctorate.
Asked if they would revoke the degree, a spokesperson for UWS told The National: “All universities award honorary degrees in good faith, based on evidence available to them at the point in time.
“Any decision to reward or revoke are subject to our established policies and procedures.”
Mone is currently being investigated over allegations of fraud and bribery in relation to PPE Medpro.
The 25 million gowns sent to the NHS through the “VIP lane” deal struck with ministers were later rejected and never used by the health service. The deal for the gowns alone was valued at £122m.
Around £60m in profit made by PPE Medpro – which was also given an £88m contract for face masks – remains in financial trusts held by Barrowman, of which Mone is a beneficiary.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is believed to have frozen Mone’s accounts around 12 months ago under the Proceeds of Crime Act to prevent her from moving cash around while the investigation into potential fraud is underway.
Mone said she had been “treated like Pablo Escobar”.
During an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg in December last year, Mone and Barrowman insisted they had done nothing wrong. She is currently taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords.
It comes after Mone hit out at the media's "ridiculous obsession" with her and her family in a statement.
