Michelle Mone has stated that she has “no wish” to return to the House of Lords as a Conservative peer, following a court ruling that ordered a company linked to her to repay £122 million for breaching a Covid-19 PPE contract. In a letter to Conservative 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 that Baroness Mone had been formally informed she would not receive the Conservative whip were she ever to return, having “fallen well short” of the party's standards. A party spokesperson said that under Badenoch's leadership, the party expects parliamentarians to maintain the highest standards.
Mone denied any wrongdoing, insisting she “never received a penny” from PPE Medpro. The High Court found that the company, which supplied surgical gowns during the pandemic, had breached its contract by failing to ensure the gowns, manufactured in China, were certified and validated to be sterile.
PPE Medpro, ultimately owned by Mone's husband Doug Barrowman, claimed the couple had been made “scapegoats” for the then Conservative government's overspending on PPE. Mone and Barrowman had previously denied involvement in the company through their lawyers, before confirming their roles in December 2023.
In her letter, Mone expressed shock at Badenoch's comments on BBC local radio, where she said Mone had brought “embarrassment and shame to the party” and should have the “book thrown at her”. Mone wrote that she had removed the whip herself by taking a leave of absence, adding: “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.”
