UK: Michelle Mone Hits Back at Rishi Sunak Amid PPE Scandal

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Facts

  • Baroness Michelle Mone has alleged that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other ministers were aware 'from the very beginning' of her involvement in personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts worth more than £200M ($255M) awarded to her husband during the COVID pandemic.1
  • Last weekend, Mone — currently sitting on a leave of absence from Parliament to 'clear her name' — admitted she had lied to British media when she denied having been involved with Barrowman's firm, which reportedly made millions of pounds in profits from UK government PPE deals.2
  • Mone has also admitted to being a beneficiary of Barrowman's financial trusts, which allegedly held around £60M ($76M) of profit from the deals. However, the House of Lords member has insisted that lying to the media is 'not a crime,' adding the couple have been made 'scapegoats' for Sunak's failings.3
  • The Conservative life peer — a member of the upper chamber since 2015 — had allegedly referred Barrowman's PPE Medpro to the UK government in 2021 via the VIP lane system. Mone initially denied receiving profits from the contracts or having any 'role or function' in the firm.4
  • In response to Mone's comments, Sunak said that the government had taken her claims 'incredibly seriously' and that legal action has been initiated against PPE Medpro, which is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency and facing breach of contract proceedings.5

Sources: 1Independent, 2BBC News, 3Daily record, 4Sky news and 5Itv news.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Evening standard. Undeserving of her peerage in the Lords and an example of many individuals whose parliamentary position undermines the chamber's legitimacy, Mone has revealed her true nature to the British public. Having lied about her relationship with PPE companies for financial gain, the baroness' titles should be stripped immediately.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by The telegraph. Mone has a right to feel betrayed by the party to which she has dedicated much of her professional life. She and her husband are being targeted for the repeated failings made by major public institutions during the pandemic. PPE Medpro was only one of 51 companies to receive government contracts, and a total of £4B ($5.1B) was spent on unusable PPE. This smear campaign is attempting to shift public attention away from the grim realities of government incompetence during COVID.

Predictions