UK’s Michelle Mone scandal: National crime agency to review “vast” dossier of evidence

UK’s Crime Agency has been handed a “vast” dossier of evidence against Michelle Mone which includes text messages and emails she exchanged with senior officials and ministers, as per the Times report.

A member of Britain’s House of Lords, Mone, openly admitted to repeatedly providing false information about her connections to a company during the COVID-19 pandemic and acknowledged that she made an error in denying her ties to PPE Medpro expressing regret for threatening legal action against journalists who reported on her links to the company.

Her claim that everyone in the government already knew of her involvement, was put under scanner this week.

During an interview with BBC, she said that the Cabinet Office had asked her: “We just need you to put it in writing and declare your interest with us, that’s all”.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also said that he was taking the scandal “incredibly seriously”.

Pandemic health minister, Lord Bethell was the very first pandemic health minister to have hit out at his colleague in the upper house, where he posted a text message where Mone referred to PPE Medpro as “they”.

“Michelle Mone wasn’t honest about her financial interest to me,” he said as per the Times. “She didn’t explain ‘from the very beginning’ about her financial ‘involvement’. It wasn’t in her [House of Lords] Register of Interests, as you’d expect. Rishi Sunak is right to take this very seriously.”

A senior Cabinet Office official calling Mone “despicable” said that she pocketed £60 million profit for her family.

“Bethell is right about the House of Lords Register of Interests,” the Times quoted a senior Cabinet Office official as saying. “Never a peep and then Mone pocketed £60 million profit for her family. Now she’s feeling sorry for herself? You couldn’t make it up. I think she’s despicable.”

“It is categorically false that she declared everything to the department. I’ve gone back and looked through paperwork,” a second source, in the DHSC, said as per the Times report.

Mone admitted to being a beneficiary of her husband’s financial trusts, holding approximately £60 million in profits from the lucrative deal. Despite their financial ties to the company, she argued that they were unfairly targeted in a broader scandal surrounding government spending during the pandemic.

“We’ve done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren’t involved,” she stated. “I can’t see what we’ve done wrong.”

The controversy surrounding Mone and PPE Medpro has become emblematic of the widespread criticism directed at the British government for hastily awarded contracts and mismanagement of funds for protective equipment. The scandal sheds light on the VIP lanes, a system where companies recommended by politicians receive preferential treatment for public contracts.

Mone, appointed to the House of Lords in 2015 by then-Prime Minister David Cameron, denied using her political connections to advocate for PPE Medpro. The company, established during the pandemic, secured contracts exceeding £200 million but faced scrutiny for delivering millions of unused surgical gowns, leading to breach of contract proceedings.

(With inputs from the agencies)