Politics

Even Nadine Dorries thinks it's a disgrace that Michelle Mone was made a peer

Even Nadine Dorries thinks it's a disgrace that Michelle Mone was made a peer
Lying to press over PPE contract was ‘not a crime’ says Michelle …
Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, BBC

Nadine Dorries didn't hold back her thoughts about the ongoing row between Michelle Mone and the government over PPE (personal protective equipment) contracts.

The former MP for Mid Bedfordshire famously quit parliament and was left "broken-hearted" after being denied a peerage despite being nominated by Boris Johnson.

She delayed her exit as an MP for 10 weeks while she investigated why she was declined a House of Lords seat and then branded Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a "privileged posh boy” who blocked a “girl from Liverpool” from receiving the title.

In her latest Daily Mail column, Dorries hit out at Mone - who has been a member of the House of Lords since 2015 - for the recent BBC interview she took part in alongside husband Doug Barrowman over the PPE contract scandal.

During the sit-down talk, Mone admitted she lied to the media about her links to her husband's firm PPE Medpro which provided PPE to the government during the Covid pandemic in a contract worth millions of pounds.

She claimed her reason for lying was to protect her family from press intrusion

From the deal, the former Tory peer stands to benefit from the £60million profits and last year took 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” when concerns about her links to the firm were raised.

“I don't honestly see there is a case to answer. I can't see what we have done wrong," the Ultimo bra tycoon told BBC's Laura Kuenssberg and she says what she did "was not a crime".

However, Mone's answers didn't impress Dorries who called for Mone to quit the House of Lords and asked how she was given a peerage in the first place.

“In the interview, Mone whined that: ‘...since I’ve walked into the House of Lords, it’s been a nightmare for me and my family,'" Dorries wrote.

“Well, Michelle, there’s an easy answer to that. Do what Lord Callanan suggested yesterday, walk right back out again. It will be a better place without you.”

While Dorries questioned Michael Gove's role in all this (as Mone claimed the then-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster approved of her involvement) and “why taxpayers’ money was being splashed about in this way".

But there is a "bigger question" that Dorries wants answered...

"The bigger question is: who put Michelle Mone forward to then prime minister David Cameron to be made a peer in 2015 and why?"

“This country is full of successful entrepreneurs and they don’t all end up wearing ermine," she added.

While many have criticised Mone's peerage, some have branded the comments from Dorries in particular as "unaware".







When asked about Mone's recent claims, Sunak said: "The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we're pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters."

"But it is also subject to an ongoing criminal investigation. And because of that, there's not much further that I can add," he added during a visit to Scotland.

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