Tory peer Baroness Mone to take leave of absence from House of Lords to 'clear her name' over PPE row
6 December 2022, 11:41 | Updated: 6 December 2022, 12:32
Tory peer Baroness Mone, who is at the centre of controversy over her alleged links to a firm awarded a PPE contract during covid, will take a leave of absence from the House of Lords with immediate effect.
A spokesman for Tory peer Baroness Mone said: "With immediate effect, Baroness Mone will be taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her."
The leave of absence means Lady Mone will not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings and will not be able to claim any allowance.
She has been linked to PPE Medpro, which won government contracts during the Covid pandemic. Her lawyers previously said she "had no role or function in PPE Medpro".
Labour plans to try to force the Government to release records of a £200 million contract awarded to PPE Medpro which Baroness Mone may have profited from.
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Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said that companies like PPE Medpro were recommended during the pandemic by Tory ministers, MPs and peers, and given "fast track" and "preferential treatment".
She described the so-called VIP lane as "a scandal of epic proportions".
She said that the company was awarded a £122 million contract for gowns that "could not be used" and that £700,000 of "taxpayers' money" a day is now being wasted on storing the unusable PPE. The company has denied that the kit was faulty.
Ms Rayner added: "This looks very dodgy - people making huge sums of money on PPE that couldn't be used. It needs to be exposed now. Those documents need to come out and it needs to be out in the open."
Last week the Guardian revealed she appeared to have profited from the profits of the PPE company.
She received £29m originating from the profits of PPE Medpro, after recommending the company to ministers, the paper claimed.
She allegedly helped the company secure a place in the government’s PPE “VIP lane,” and the firm went on to secure contracts worth more than £200m.
Between May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.
In December 2020, it emerged that millions of gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.
PPE Medpro said at the time that it had complied 100% with the terms specified in its contract.
Businesswoman Baroness Mone, who joined the Lords in 2015, is being investigated by the Lords commissioner for standards.
The Department of Health said: "Due diligence was carried out on all companies that were referred to the department and every company was subjected to the same checks."
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: "This is more proof if any were needed that Sunak’s pledge of integrity has been reduced to dust.
"The public will be rightly appalled that we are still hearing allegations about how many of the Tories’ friends were able to cash in on human suffering.
"Sunak needs to suspend the whip for Mone and commit on public record that he will personally ensure that everyone in his party fully complies with any investigation."
