Michelle Mone accuses chancellor of ‘inflammatory’ language

Baroness Michelle Mone has accused the chancellor of using “dangerous and inflammatory” language after a firm linked to her and her husband was ordered to pay £122m for breaching a Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) contract.

During a fringe event at Labour’s party conference this week, Rachel Reeves reportedly joked the government had a vendetta against the peer.

In a letter to the prime minister, Baroness Mone said her language was “incendiary and has directly increased the risks to my personal safety”. She claimed she received “threats and abuse” on social media since Reeves’ remarks.

On Wednesday, a judge ruled that PPE Medpro’s gowns did not comply with government standards.

PPE Medpro was set up by a consortium led by Baroness Mone’s husband, Doug Barrowman. It was awarded a government contract to supply PPE after being recommended by Baroness Mone.

However, after ordering 25 million sterile gowns from PPE Medpro, the government later launched legal action in 2022 through the High Court, claiming the gowns did not comply with the agreed contract.

PPE Medpro argued it had complied with the contract and that the gowns were sterile.

Since Wednesday’s court judgement, Baroness Mone has faced cross-party calls for her to be stripped of her peerage.

She is currently on a leave of absence from the House of Lords and Reeves has said she does not want her to return. On Thursday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told BBC News that Baroness Mone should be stripped of her title.

However, peerages can only be removed by an act of Parliament.

In the letter, seen by the BBC, Baroness Mone demanded Sir Keir Starmer order an “urgent, independent investigation into whether ministers or officials have improperly influenced the NCA [National Crime Agency], CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] and civil litigation process”.

She also insisted the chancellor retract her comments.

Baroness Mone told Sir Keir: “I feel compelled to alert you to the dangerous and inflammatory statement made by your Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves.”

She said the word vendetta referred to “vengeance, feud and blood feud” and that Reeves’ comments had made her and her family feel unsafe.

She also said her social media had “gone into meltdown with threats and abuse”, adding “we need only look at the tragedies of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess to understand the dangers of such reckless language,” she said.

Jo Cox was the Labour MP for Batley and Spen and was killed in 2016.

Sir David Amess was the Conservative MP for Southend West when he was fatally stabbed in 2021.

Concluding her letter, Baroness Mone said: “Prime Minister, I ask you directly: do you stand by your chancellor’s assertion that the government has a vendetta against me? Or will you act decisively to end this campaign, protect my safety, and restore integrity to government?

“Failure to take urgent action will leave me with no choice but to pursue all available legal remedies, including defamation, harassment, and misfeasance claims, while also taking steps to ensure my personal safety and that of my family.”

The Cabinet Office declined to comment.

However, a Treasury source told the BBC: “When both the Labour chancellor and Conservative leader agree with each other you’ve lost the argument.”

Mone was made a Tory peer by David Cameron in 2015, but lost the whip following the revelations about the contract to supply medical gowns.

The High Court ruled PPE Medpro failed to prove whether or not its surgical gowns, which were to be used by NHS workers, had undergone a validated sterilisation process.

Following the ruling, Mrs Justice Cockerill said the £122m damages cost must be paid by 16:00 BST on 15 October.