Michelle Mone squares up to Rishi Sunak after PM’s intervention over PPE scandal – latest

Michelle Mone has hit out at Rishi Sunak after the prime minister said he was taking the scandal surrounding her involvement in lucrative PPE contracts “incredibly seriously”.

The baroness is facing calls to be barred from the House of Lords after she admitted standing to benefit from £60m in profit over a contract signed with PPE Medpro at the height of the Covid crisis after she recommended it to ministers.

The Tory peer and Ultimo bra tycoon has taken a leave of absence from the Lords for more than a year as she bids to “clear her name” over the scandal. But she is free to resume membership, piling pressure on the PM to ensure she does not return to the upper House.

After Mr Sunak said he was taking the scandal “incredibly seriously”, Ms Mone said: “What is Rishi 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.”

Key Points

• Baroness hits back at Rishi Sunak

• Michelle Mone admits she lied and stands to benefit from £60m PPE contract

• Tory peer facing calls to be barred from House of Lords

Letters | Was lying really Michelle Mone’s ‘only mistake’?

Monday 18 December 2023 21:16 , Andy Gregory

In a letter to The Independent, Tim Sidaway, one of our readers in Herefordshire, has written:

Michelle Mone says her “only mistake” was repeatedly lying (my words, as she couldn’t bring herself to admit it as it is) by denying any benefit from the PPE deal made with her husband’s company at the height of the pandemic.

What about recommending the deal in the first place, knowing that her family would benefit? What about failing to declare an interest to the Lords, against procedure? And then threatening legal action to protect her lies?

At least her claims regarding government malfeasance and incompetence are believable.

Letters: Michelle Mone’s TV interview was a car crash on the scale of Prince Andrew’s

Michelle Mone appeared to fight back tears in Medpro-funded film

Monday 18 December 2023 20:34 , Kate Devlin, Politics and Whitehall Editor

The astonishing interview with Laura Kuenssberg 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.

David Oliver, a former president of the Royal College of Physicians, told the Sunday Times he had been “used’.

It was called The Interview: Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal and presented and produced by Mark Williams-Thomas, a former detective and award-winning investigative journalist. Defending the programme he told the paper it was split into “two distinct parts”, the first on the government’s handling of PPE and the second half on PPE Medpro and Mone.

‘It’s not my yacht, it’s not my money,’ says Michelle Mone

Monday 18 December 2023 20:03 , Andy Gregory

Michelle Mone has admitted that a 30 per cent profit had been made on PPE contracts, of around £60 million. But she denied to the BBC that 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.”

But she insisted if he divorced her she would receive nothing.

Michelle Mone admits she lied and stands to benefit from £60m PPE contract profit

Deputy PM ‘doesn’t accept’ Michelle Mone’s claim she was ‘scapegoat’ in PPE scandal

Monday 18 December 2023 19:30 , Holly Patrick

Oliver Dowden has said he “doesn’t accept” Baroness Michelle Mone’s claim that she and her husband Doug Barrowman were made “scapegoats” for the government’s wider failings over PPE during the Covid pandemic.

Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, the deputy prime minister added: “There’s a limit to what I can say, but I don’t recognise that.”

It came after Lady Mone apologised for denying her links to the PPE Medpro firm which was awarded government contracts worth more than £200m to supply PPE after she recommended it to ministers.

No ‘VIP lane’ existed for PPE, says Conservative former minister

Monday 18 December 2023 19:01 , Andy Gregory

In case you missed it, a Tory ex-Treasury minister this month denied the existence of a so-called VIP lane over personal protective equipment (PPE) as the government scrambled to find sufficient kit in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The idea of there existing a VIP lane is “misconstrued”, Lord Agnew told BBC Newsnight, saying: “I don’t call it the VIP lane at all. We were getting hundreds of offers a day to help from largely very decent people who were as worried as we were in government.

“And we had to find some way of getting the more critical ones through into the procurement triaging system. So that’s all it was. The idea of it being a VIP line is very misconstrued.”

Lord Agnew resigned in January this year from his ministerial posts over what he described at the time as the “schoolboy” handling of fraudulent Covid-19 business loans.

No ‘VIP lane’ existed for PPE, says Conservative former minister

Michelle Mone says she ‘regrets’ denying links to PPE Medpro

Monday 18 December 2023 18:28 , Andy Gregory

Baroness Michelle Mone apologised after denying her links to the PPE Medpro firm which was awarded contracts worth more than £200m to supply personal protective equipment after she recommended it to ministers, reports my colleague Holly Patrick.

The Conservative peer was questioned by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday on the controversy surrounding the firm, which is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

“I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. I regret and I’m sorry for not saying straight out ‘yes I am involved’,” Lady Mone said.

Opinion | The Michelle Mone interview was the worst PR comeback since Prince Andrew

Monday 18 December 2023 17:59 , Andy Gregory

In his column on Michelle Mone’s BBC interview, our associate editor Sean O’Grady writes:

“I’m not sure who’s advising Baroness (Michelle) Mone and her hubby Doug Barrowman these days.

“Hannah Ingram-Moore maybe, who, during a catastrophic interview earlier this year with Piers Morgan, destroyed the charitable foundation set up in the name of Captain Sir Tom Moore, her dear old dad and national treasure?

“Or maybe Lady Mone was recently at a perfectly normal shooting party and bumped into his former royal highness the Duke of York, a chap always ready with a few useful tips about getting out of a fix.

“Whoever is at the ignoble lady’s elbow these days isn’t serving her interests terribly well. Presumably advised to do so as part of some PR charm offensive, the pair offered themselves up to Laura Kuenssberg for an interview to explain how they’d been scapegoated over the coronavirus personal protective equipment (PPE) affair, and how the mess (which wasn’t really a mess, because nothing was wrong anyway) was all everyone’s else’s fault and nothing to do with them.”

The Michelle Mone interview was the worst comeback since Prince Andrew | Sean O’Grady

Watch: Lying to press over PPE contract was ‘not a crime’ says Michelle Mone

Monday 18 December 2023 17:26 , Andy Gregory

What is the process for barring someone from House of Lords?

Monday 18 December 2023 17:00 , Archie Mitchell

To be kicked out of the Lords, its Conduct Committee would have to recommend that Michelle Mone be expelled before fellow members voted on the punishment.

But once removed, former members maintain 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.

Michelle Mone accuses Sunak of trying to ‘save his own skin'

Monday 18 December 2023 16:37 , Andy Gregory

Michelle Mone has accused Rishi Sunak of “pointing fingers to save his own skin”.

The Tory peer pointed to back to 2020, when Mr Sunak refused to say whether he stood to profit from an increase in the share price of Covid vaccine manufacturer Moderna, which was one of the biggest investments held by the hedge fund he co-founded and then left in 2013 before entering parliament.

Baroness Mone tweeted: “Does Rishi Sunak stand to profit from the Moderna Covid vaccine during the pandemic? I suggest that he might want to take that ‘incredibly seriously’ before pointing fingers to save his own skin!”

PPE Medpro has been under NCA investigation since May 2021

Monday 18 December 2023 16:19 , Archie Mitchell, Political Corresponent

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.

Should Michelle Mone be expelled from the House of Lords following PPE scandal?

Monday 18 December 2023 16:10 , Andy Gregory

The Indepedent wants to know if you think Baroness Mone should be barred from the House of Lords following her latest admission.

Or do you agree that there isn’t “a case to answer” and Baroness Mone is being used as a “scapegoat” for the government’s Covid failings?

If you want to share your opinion then add it in the comments in this article and we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in. All you have to do is sign up and register your details – then you can then take part in the discussion:

Tell us if Michelle Mone should be expelled from Lords following PPE scandal

Watch: Michelle Mone admits she could benefit from £60m PPE contract

Monday 18 December 2023 15:58 , Andy Gregory

Michelle Mone hits back at Rishi Sunak

Monday 18 December 2023 15:45 , Andy Gregory

Michelle Mone has hit back at Rishi Sunak over his intervention in the PPE contract row, claiming ministers knew about her involvement from the beginning.

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.”

But Baroness Mone criticised the PM, writing on 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.”

Michelle Mone facing calls to be barred from House of Lords

Monday 18 December 2023 15:23 , Archie Mitchell, Political Correspondent

Michelle Mone is facing calls to be barred from the House of Lords over her involvement in lucrative PPE contracts.

The row erupted after she finally admitted publicly that she stood to to benefit from £60million in profit over a PPE contract signed at the height of the Covid crisis.

Baroness Mone, the Ultimo bra tycoon who was made a peer by then-PM Lord Cameron in 2015, said on Sunday that she was “sorry” for denying her links to PPE Medpro, which was awarded government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply personal protective equipment after she recommended it to ministers.

Sir Keir Starmer said she should be removed 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.”

He followed Tory peer and energy efficiency minister Lord Callanan saying 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 while she has lost the Tory whip over the scandal, Baroness Mone is free to resume her membership of the Lords.

Furious Michelle Mone hits back at Rishi Sunak over PPE scandal

Michelle Mone admits she lied and lied again and stands to benefit from £60m PPE contract profit

Monday 18 December 2023 15:20 , Kate Devlin, Politics and Whitehall Editor

Former Tory peer Baroness Mone has admitted she lied and lied again as she conceded she stands to benefit from £60million in profit over a PPE contract at the height of the Covid crisis.

She said she was “sorry” for publicly denying her links to the firm involved, which is being investigated by the National Crime Agency.

However, a defiant Baroness Mone added: “I don’t honestly see there is a case to answer. I can’t see what we have done wrong.”

She claimed she was not trying to “pull the wool” over anyone’s eyes and that she and her husband had been made scapegoats on the issue.

In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she 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”.

You can read the full report here:

Michelle Mone admits she lied and stands to benefit from £60m PPE contract profit

Monday 18 December 2023 15:19 , Andy Gregory

Good afternoon, we’ll be using this liveblog to provide live updates after Downing Street said it was taking the scandal surrounding Tory peer Michelle Mone “incredibly seriously”.