Michelle Mone has stated she has “no wish” to return to the House of Lords as a Conservative peer, following a court ruling that a company linked to her must repay £122 million for breaching a Covid-19 PPE contract. In a letter to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Lady Mone accused her of using “inflammatory language” and suggested she was leading the party to extinction.
The Conservatives responded by saying Mone had been formally informed by the Lords’ chief whip that she would not receive the party whip if she ever returned. A party spokesperson said: “Under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, the Conservative party expects parliamentarians to maintain the highest standards, and on this Baroness Mone has fallen well short.”
Mone denied any wrongdoing and claimed she “never received a penny” from PPE Medpro, the company ultimately owned by her husband, Doug Barrowman. The High Court found that the company failed to ensure surgical gowns manufactured in China were certified as sterile. PPE Medpro claimed the couple were made “scapegoats” for government overspending on PPE.
In her letter, Mone said she was “shocked to the core” by Badenoch’s comments calling for her resignation. She argued that the Conservative government “knew of my involvement from the outset” and that she had removed the whip herself by taking a leave of absence. She added: “However, you will be pleased to hear that once I do clear my name, I have no wish to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer; that’s assuming there still is a Conservative party before the next general election.”
