What the government has not denied is that a Conservative `politician’ apparently benefited personally and financially from her connection to a business that was awarded substantial government contracts as a result of her lobbying by a backdoor route not available to others.
Worse still, shameless ministers appear to have learned nothing from these scandals. The government’s new procurement bill gives them free rein to hand out billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash once more. Far from showing that they will take steps to prevent a repeat of this scandal, they’ve brazenly admitted that if a new pandemic were unleashed upon us tomorrow, they would do it all again. But we can no longer afford another of these scandals – or waste on this epic scale.
A petition started by campaign group 38 Degrees and addressed to the House of Lords conduct committee is calling for Baroness Mone to be expelled. It also demands that the body “ensure that every penny in profit that she took from the taxpayer is repaid immediately”.
Jonathan Harty, Campaigns Manager at 38 Degrees, said: “It’s less than a week since the light on the paper trail reportedly linking Baroness Mone to this scandal was revealed, and already more than 124,000 members of the public have called for her to be expelled from the Lords. While our heroic NHS workers were putting their lives on the line during the pandemic, the idea a Conservative peer could be feathering her own nest on the backs of a contract that failed to deliver the vital PPE our essential workers needed, is sickening. In the face of reports that millions may have been pocketed by people looking to make a profit out of the pandemic, the message from the public couldn’t be clearer: corruption has no place in politics. If Baroness Mone used her position to make millions of pounds for herself, she should not only lose her seat in the Lords, she should have to pay back every penny. Michelle Mone still sits as a Conservative Peer. The pressure on the Lords Committee, and on Government ministers is mounting by the minute.”
The Labour party is bringing a binding vote to the Commons on Tuesday to attempt to make the government release “all papers, advice, and correspondence involving ministers and special advisers, including submissions and electronic communications” relating to the contracts to the public accounts committee.
Speaking ahead of the vote, deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Tory MPs can either back Labour’s binding vote to force ministers to come clean on the murky award of £203m in taxpayers’ money to a shady company linked to a Tory peer, or they are choosing to be complicit in a cover-up.”
I’ll put my money on “Tory MPs choosing to be complicit in a cover-up.” …
The party will present a motion calling for the documents to be published in a Commons debate later.
If the motion passes, the government would have to publish the documents, although they may argue they can be redacted for legal reasons or because of commercial sensitivity.
Conservative MPs are expected to abstain from the vote, which would allow the motion to pass.
Tory peer Michelle Mone is taking a leave of absence from the Lords “to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her”, her spokesman has said.
It means she will not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings or be able to claim any allowance. Her spokesman said the leave of absence was “with immediate effect” and was Baroness Mone’s decision. It also means she does not have to register her financial interests, although her request for a leave of absence could be refused.
Baroness Mone has not voted in the Lords since April and has not spoken in a debate since March 2020.
Obviously, because her attendance record is so poor, she won’t be missed but her avoidance of financial scrutiny will be duly noted …
Dismal isn’t it? She pockets £29m and suddenly finds that ducking out of the HoL is both convenient for avoiding scrutiny and gives her more time to spend on her yacht. No wonder Russian oligarchs looked at London and felt completely at home.
A second company that the Tory peer Michelle Mone lobbied ministers over in an attempt to secure government Covid contracts was a secret entity of her husband’s family office, the Guardian can reveal.
Lady Mone’s lobbying on behalf of the company, LFI Diagnostics, which she tried to help secure government contracts for Covid lateral flow tests, prompted a formal rebuke from a health minister who reminded her of “the need for propriety”.
A departmental source told the Guardian that Mone was “in a class of her own in terms of the sheer aggression of her advocacy” on behalf of LFI Diagnostics.
However, it is the revelation that the company was a secret entity of the office that manages the wealth of her husband, Douglas Barrowman, that will deepen the controversy over the Tory peer and her access to ministers.
Mone’s apparent lobbying during the pandemic of at least four Tory ministers – Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Lord Agnew and Lord Bethell – is threatening to become a major scandal for the government.
Mone is, seemingly, “one pushy broad”, as the vernacular has it …
The government has agreed to publish documents relating to £200m of personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts given to a company that has been linked to a Conservative peer - but not until probes into the firm have completed.
Labour brought a binding vote to the Commons on Tuesday, demanding “all papers, advice, and correspondence” about contracts given to PPE Medpro to be handed over to the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The party’s deputy leader Anglea Rayner said it was time to “end the cover-up and begin the clean-up”, adding: “A vote for this motion is a vote in favour of the truth.”
Health minister Will Quince said the government was “committed to releasing information” and the motion passed without a vote.
But he told the Commons it would only be delivered when all investigations into the contracts were concluded, promising Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden would contact the chair of the PAC “soon” about “information sharing arrangements”.
The only speck of good news for the peer this week appears to have come in the 1.17pm race at Newcastle on Thursday, won by Monbeg Genius, a horse she bought for her husband as his “second wedding gift”.
The six-year-old gelding, bought for £80,000, was one of a number of acquisitions that Mone and her husband made in the months after they secretly received at least £65m from profits originating from PPE Medpro. In a change of direction, several of those assets are now for sale.
PPE Medpro has become the subject of a potential fraud investigation by the National Crime Agency. In April this year, NCA officers searched several addresses, including the mansion Mone and Douglas Barrowman occupy in the Isle of Man. At the time, lawyers for PPE Medpro declined to comment on the NCA investigation.
Let’s hope that the police found something seriously incriminating …
I think the National Crime Agency are investigating Baroness Mone over alleged fraud, aren’t they?
I recall reading about her private home being raided by NCA Officers to seize any relevant documents / files held by Mone and her husband.
That must have been at least 6 months ago, so I don’t know what the updated situation is - except that the Lords Commissioners for Standards have published this explanation of why they cannot publish their own findings about Mone’s Misconduct Investigation
Baroness Mone – Alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro leading to potential breaches of the following paragraphs of the House of Lords Code of Conduct: 9 (a), (b), (c), (d); 12 (a), (b); 16.
In accordance with paragraph 144 of the Guide to the Code of Conduct, the Commissioner is unable to finalise or publish any report into the conduct of Baroness Mone while the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation. Once any criminal process is complete or has ceased, the Commissioner will complete his investigation and publish his report.
Edited to Add - Sorry @Omah - when I posted this reply, I hadn’t seen that you had already replied to Azz’s post with a link about the NCA Investigation.
A LUXURY office complex in Aberdeen run by Michelle Mone has links to the same network of companies involved in the PPE scandal, it has been revealed.
Neospace, an £18 million office building, was opened by Michelle Mone and her husband Douglas Barrowman last year.
Now there are calls for Mone and her husband to reveal how the 22,000 square-foot office complex on the banks of the Dee was funded – and whether government money was involved.
The project was billed as an attempt to reinvent the modern workspace and the building contains a golf simulator, a gym complete with sauna, and a juice bar as well as offices.
Aberdeen City Council also authorised the sale of alcohol at the building until 11pm.
The government is attempting to get its money back on one of the deals, for the supply of medical gowns during the pandemic, in the High Court.
PPE Medpro said it would “rigorously” defend the claim. The company accused the government of a “cynical attempt” to recover money from suppliers who had acted in good faith and to contract specifications.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have commenced legal proceedings in the High Court against PPE Medpro Limited for breach of contract regarding gowns delivered under a contract dated 26 June 2020. We do not comment on matters that are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.”
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “After nearly a year of hiding behind a mediation process with a company linked to one of their own peers, Conservative ministers have finally been shamed into action to recover taxpayers’ money after damning revelations, public outcry and Labour pressure. Time will now tell if the shoddy contracts they drew up are sufficiently robust to retrieve the public money they carelessly handed over.”
Should not have lied, if there was nothing to hide. She said that was “not a crime” and added: “No-one deserves this.” Lying has caused more stress, which could have been avoided.
The Scottish businesswoman was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron but is no longer in the party.
Fooling nobody.
