Baroness Michelle Mone has hit out at Kemi Badenoch and said she has no wish to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer after a company linked to her was ordered to repay millions of pounds for breaching a Covid-19 PPE contract.
On Wednesday, PPE Medpro was ordered to pay back the government nearly £122m.
In response, several high-profile politicians have called for Lady Mone to relinquish her seat in the Lords, with Tory leader Ms Badenoch saying she had brought “embarrassment and shame to the party”, and should have the “book thrown at her”.
In a letter to Mrs Badenoch on Friday, Lady Mone hit out, saying there seemed to be “amnesia” over her loss of the Conservative whip, and that she had “removed it myself by taking a leave of absence”.
She continued: “However, you will be pleased to hear that once I do clear my name, I have no wish to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer; that’s assuming there still is a Conservative Party before the next general election.”
She also said the Conservative government knew of her involvement and named former health secretary Matt Hancock, Lord Agnew, Lord Feldman and Lord Chadlington as among 51 “mostly Conservative peers and MPs” who introduced PPE providers to the VIP lane.
“So, Kemi, my role was exactly the same as all other Conservative MPs and peers who were trying to help provide PPE,” she added.
“If I have done wrong, then so have all the others in the VIP lane. In which case, you should be calling out for them to resign as well. That’s if you manage to work out what it is they are supposed to have done wrong.”
The outburst came as an online petition calling for Baroness Mone to step down from the Lords, launched by the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, attracted 60,000 signatures in 24 hours.
The Conservatives later said Lady Mone had already been informed she would not be given the Tory whip were she to return to the Lords.
A party spokesman said: “Baroness Mone has not been in receipt of the Conservative whip since she took a leave of absence from the House of Lords, and she is not a Conservative Party member.
“Baroness Mone was formally written to yesterday by the Lords Chief Whip, and informed that she would not receive the Conservative whip were she ever to return.
“Under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, the Conservative Party expects parliamentarians to maintain the highest standards, and on this Baroness Mone has fallen well short.”
