Michelle Mone: Businesswoman has 'no wish' to return as Tory peer, as 'shocked' letter sent to Kemi Badenoch

The Scottish businesswoman has been urged to quit or be banished from the House of Lords altogether by Chancellor Rachel Reeves as well as the SNP.

But the Conservatives, who have suspended the whip from the baroness, have also called on her to exit the House of Lords.

The calls come after PPE Medpro, a company linked to Lady Mone, was on Wednesday ordered to pay back nearly £122 million to the UK government after the firm was found to have breached a contract to supply surgical gowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Baroness Mone could remain in the House of Lords as an independent peer if she resigns the Conservative Party whip. She could only have her peerage removed by an Act of Parliament.

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While a life peerage cannot be relinquished, Lady Mone could choose to resign from being a member of the House of Lords.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch told BBC local radio on Thursday that Baroness Mone had brought “embarrassment and shame to the party” and should have the “book thrown at her”.

But in a letter to Mrs Badenoch on Friday, Baroness Mone said there “seems to be a bit of amnesia” about her loss of the Conservative whip, stating she had “removed it myself by taking a leave of absence”.

She continued: “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.”

In the letter to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Baroness Mone said: “Dear Kemi, I was shocked to the core to read about your inflammatory language on BBC Radio yesterday calling for me to resign from the House of Lords.”

She added: “What is it exactly that I have done wrong? Do you know? If so, please enlighten me.”

Lady Mone continued that Wednesday’s High Court ruling “was purely a contractual dispute between PPE Medpro and the DHSC”.

She said: “I have never received a penny from PPE Medpro. Reference to £29m being placed in a trust for me and my kids is a lie. It is a trust set up by my husband for the benefit of all our kids, not just mine.

“This is no different to how my husband manages all his business affairs. I have no entitlement to any of this money whatsoever.”

The businesswoman later said the previous Conservative government “knew of my involvement from the outset and welcomed my assistance at a time of national emergency” and that she had not acted differently from other politicians who had referred companies.

She said: “So Kemi, my role was exactly the same as all other Conservative MPs and peers who were trying to help provide PPE.”

The Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.

In her 87-page ruling on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Cockerill said the gowns provided by PPE Medpro “were not, contractually speaking, sterile, or properly validated as being sterile”, which meant they could not be used in the NHS.