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Rishi Sunak is embroiled in a bitter row with Baroness Michelle Mone, a Conservative MP, over her role in a medical devices company that has won government contracts worth more than £200 million during the pandemic.
The British prime minister said he was taking the matter “incredibly seriously” after Mone, a lingerie entrepreneur, admitted she stood to benefit from about £60 million in profits made by PPE Medpro, which makes personal protective equipment as of May 2020 sold to the government.
Mone, who on Sunday admitted lying to the media about her involvement in PPE Medpro, wrote on They all knew about my commitment from the start.”
Labor is trying to portray the affair as a case of Tory cronyism and evidence of ministers diverting funds from a cash-starved NHS to pay for dodgy Covid contracts. The main opposition party has an average lead of 18 points in the polls ahead of an election expected next year.
Mone told the BBC on Sunday she approached Michael Gove, then Cabinet Office minister, and offered him the services of PPE Medpro in 2020.
For several years, Mone's spokespeople and attorneys denied that she had any involvement in the company, as did representatives of her husband, Doug Barrowman.
On Sunday, Mone admitted she would benefit from winning around £60 million. She and her children were beneficiaries of trust funds where the money was held, Mone said, adding: “It's my husband's money.”
Sunak tried to distance himself from Mone on Monday, saying: “The government takes these matters incredibly seriously, which is why we are taking legal action against the company involved in these matters.”
Speaking on a visit to Scotland, he added: “That’s how seriously I take it and the government takes it. But it is also the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation and for that reason I cannot add much more.”
Meanwhile, Lord James Bethell, a health minister during the pandemic, said said on
“She did not declare her financial 'commitment' 'from the start,'” he said. Bethell posted a message from Mone in which she referred to “the PPE Medpro team” without mentioning her own links.
Mone has been contacted for comment.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said the affair was “a shocking disgrace from top to bottom” and called on a minister to make an explanation to the House of Commons about how the contract was awarded.
The government launched legal proceedings against PPE Medpro last year, alleging breach of contract over the quality of protective gowns provided by the company worth £122 million. PPE Medpro denies that the goods were defective. The National Crime Agency is also carrying out an investigation.
Mone is currently on leave from the House of Lords. Lord Martin Callanan, an energy minister, said: “I would hope that she does not return to the House of Lords.”
Meanwhile, Sunak's problems deepened on Monday when it was revealed that Conservative MP Miriam Cates was being investigated by the parliamentary watchdog over allegations she caused “significant damage” to the reputation of the House of Commons.
The 2019 elected MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge and a rising star on the party's right has been accused of damaging the reputation of the “House of Representatives as a whole or its members generally”.
No further details of the investigation have been released as the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner's process is confidential.
Cates is one of eight MPs being investigated by the Standards Commissioner, alongside Dame Eleanor Laing, the deputy speaker of the House of Commons, and Conservative veteran Sir Bernard Jenkin.
Cates has been contacted for comment.