PPE Medpro: Thousands sign petition to banish Michelle Mone from the House of Lords
PPE Medpro, which is linked to Baroness Mone, has been ordered to repay the UK Government £122 million.
Thousands have signed a petition launched by Covid bereaved families to have Michelle Mone thrown out of the House of Lords.
PPE Medpro - the firm linked to Baroness Mone - was on Wednesday ordered to repay almost £122 million to the UK government for breaching a contract to supply 25 million surgical gowns during the Covid pandemic.
The company is led by Baroness Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman. PPE Medpro was awarded the government contract after Baroness Mone recommended the move to ministers.
The SNP has since called for Baroness Mone to be stripped of her peerage and banished from the House of Lords.
Baroness Mone, who was made a peer by former Conservative prime minister David Cameron in 2015, is on leave from the House of Lords, but is still able to claim expenses at the cost of taxpayers.
Over 60,000 people have now signed a petition launched by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK to have Baroness Mone removed from the House of Lords.
The Bereaved Families for Justice group said: “Michelle Mone’s continued place in the House of Lords is a slap in the face to every family who lost someone during the pandemic.
“While NHS staff were risking their lives, companies she helped secure contracts for were supplying unsafe PPE at a cost of £122m to the public.
“For bereaved families, her continued presence in parliament insults the memory of those who died and highlights the lack of accountability for the profiteering and failures that cost lives.”
Peers can only be removed from the House of Lords by an act of parliament.
Baroness Mone has criticised the High Court judgment, calling it a win for the “establishment”, while her husband said it was a “travesty of justice”.
The peer has claimed she was the target of a “vendetta” by the government.
Conservatives pile pressure on Mone
But Conservatives shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho described the actions of Baroness Mone, who has the Tory whip suspended, as “disgraceful” and called on her to relinquish her peerage.
Her party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch, told BBC local radio on Thursday Baroness Mone had brought “embarrassment and shame to the party”, and should have the “book thrown at her”.
The Conservatives piled pressure on Baroness Mone, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday she “clearly shouldn’t be in the House of Lords”.
Ms Coutinho told Sky News: “I think it was disgraceful what she’s done. It was also a Conservative government who started the lawsuit. The lawsuit, which means that she’s had to repay this money, started in, I think it was 2022, when Rishi Sunak was prime minister.
“We’ve taken away the Conservative whip, she’s no longer a Conservative peer, and I think the honourable thing to do, particularly in light of this, would be to resign.”
Speaking to BBC Radio Derby, Mrs Badenoch said of Baroness Mone: “She brought a lot of embarrassment and shame to the party, and made people think that she had got those contracts because she was a Conservative. Absolutely not the case.
“As the prosecution against her continues, they should throw the full book at her for every single criminal act or every single bit of wrongdoing that has taken place.”
PPE Medpro, a consortium led by Mr Barrowman, was awarded government contracts by the former Conservative administration to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic, after Baroness Mone recommended it to ministers.
She then acted as the firm’s “big gun” in talks with officials to help get the contract over the line.
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