Baroness Michelle Mone has launched a blistering attack on Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, accusing her of “inflammatory language”, “reckless public statements”, and misrepresenting both the facts and legal context surrounding the PPE Medpro case.
In a two-page letter seen by Business Matters, the peer directly confronts Badenoch’s remarks made on BBC Radio, in which she called for Baroness Mone to resign from the House of Lords and said the authorities should “throw the book at her for every single bit of wrongdoing that has taken place”.
Baroness Mone responds: “So I’m going to ask you the question — what is it exactly that I have done WRONG? Do you know? If so, please enlighten me.”
The letter, dated 3 October, follows the £122 million High Court ruling against PPE Medpro, the company linked to Baroness Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, for breach of contract over the supply of sterile surgical gowns during the pandemic.
Baroness Mone criticises Badenoch for commenting publicly on what she describes as a live criminal investigation, warning it could amount to contempt of court.
“You are commenting on a live criminal investigation that could prejudice the outcome of any trial… you are reportable to the Attorney General,” she wrote.
She insists that the National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation is not about PPE Medpro’s contracts, but rather relates to allegations that she concealed her involvement — allegations she firmly denies.
“After 4 years and 5 months of investigating a relatively simple matter, the NCA have never arrested or charged my husband or me,” Mone states.
“I have never received a penny from PPE Medpro… this is a trust set up by my husband for the benefit of all our kids. I have no entitlement to this money whatsoever”.
Mone’s letter goes further, calling out what she describes as the hypocrisy of political attacks by Conservative figures, while many of their own colleagues also played roles in VIP-lane PPE referrals.
She namechecks senior Conservatives including Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Lord Agnew, Lord Feldman, and Lord Chadlington, stating that they too referred suppliers for contracts during the pandemic.
“So, Kemi, my role was exactly the same as all other Conservative MPs and Peers… If I have done wrong, then so have all the others in the VIP lane. In which case, you should be calling for them to resign as well”.
Mone: “I have no desire to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer”
Baroness Mone also corrects claims that she was removed from the Conservative Party whip, stating that she voluntarily took a leave of absence, which automatically led to losing the whip.
“Stop playing silly little games that you somehow removed the whip from me. I removed it myself,” she wrote.
She concludes the letter by making it clear that even if she is cleared, she has no desire to return as a Conservative peer.
“You’ll 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”.
This is the latest escalation in a political and legal saga that has gripped Westminster. Last week, Business Matters reported on Baroness Mone’s explosive letter to the Prime Minister, following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ fringe event remark that the government had a “vendetta” against her — comments which Mone says have endangered her safety.
The High Court ruled on 2 October that PPE Medpro breached its contractual obligations to provide gowns sterilised through a validated process, ordering the company to repay £121,999,219 by 15 October.
Barrowman and Mone maintain that they were scapegoated by the government to distract from its wider £10 billion PPE overspend, and that the case was politically motivated from the outset.
