Baroness Michelle Mone has said she has “no wish to return” to the House of Lords as a Tory peer and pledged to clear her name over the PPE scandal.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had joined calls for Baroness Mone to be stripped of her peerage after a judge ruled that PPE Medpro – a firm linked to her – should repay £122 million for breaching a Covid contract.
Baroness Mone, who was made a peer by Prime Minister David Cameron, said in her letter to the Tory leader that would not return to the Tories “assuming there still is a Conservative Party before the next election”.
The former lingerie entrepreneur lost the Tory whip following the PPE revelations and now sits as an independent, though she has currently on leave of absence.
In her letter Baroness Mone said there “seems to be a bit of amnesia” about her loss of the whip, suggesting that she voluntarily surrendered it when she chose to go on leave.
The Tories have formally told her that she would not be accepted back as a Tory if she ever returned to the Lords, but Mone said in her reply: “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.
Ms Badenoch has joined a number of politicians, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and the SNP group who have called for Mone to relinquish her peerage in the light of the High Court judgement.
Peerages can only be removed by an act of Parliament and Labour has been encouraged to act in the interests of drawing a line under the affair.
PPE Medpro, a consortium led by Baroness Mone’s husband, Doug Barrowman, was awarded lucrative contracts to supply 25 million medical gowns to the NHS during the pandemic. The judge ruled they were faulty and that repayment is due by 15 October.
There are questions about the likelihood of the government overcoming various legal and commercial obstacles to recovering the money, not least because PPE Medpro was put into administration before this week’s verdict.
One option is to pursue a criminal conviction. In December 2023, £75 million worth of assets owned by the couple were frozen as part of an investigation by National Crime Agency investigation. They include the couple’s country estate on the Isle of Man, a six-bedroom house in Belgravia, central London, nine properties in Glasgow and 15 accounts at Coutts, C Hoare & Co and Goldman Sachs International.
If a criminal conviction was achieved those frozen assets could be used to repay some of the £122 million. No charges have been laid and both Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman deny any wrongdoing.
The couple have since sold £80 million worth of other assets, including a £7.5 million private jet, a £7 million superyacht named Lady M and a £41 million six-bedroom villa on the Caribbean island of St Barts.
Another option for the government is to pursue a civil claim of breach of duty against the individuals behind the company.
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