Tory peer professes no wrongdoing amid dismissal calls

Archie Mitchell, The Independent

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 that Downing Street was taking the case “incredibly seriously”. But Baroness Mone fired off an angry message at 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 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.

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, 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.

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.