A Conservative minister has said he hopes his former colleague Michelle Mone “sees sense” and does not return to the Lords after Mone admitted she lied in denying involvement with a company that held UK government PPE deals during the Covid pandemic.
The comments by Martin Callanan, the energy efficiency minister, heap further pressure on Mone, who had repeatedly denied connection to PPE Medpro, that made millions of pounds in profits during the pandemic.
In a BBC interview on Sunday, Mone said she had not told the truth about her involvement to protect her family from press attention. When it was put to her that she had admitted lying to the press, Mone replied: “That’s not a crime.”
Mone was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron in 2015, but has been on a leave of absence from the Lords since last year.
Asked about Mone’s case, Lord Callanan, the minister for energy efficiency, said: “I can’t comment on the details of the case, because obviously there are both criminal and civil legal actions ongoing and she has to speak for herself.
“I watched the interview yesterday. I think she should have declared her involvement in that in the House of Lords register, and there is guidance available for that.”
He also incorrectly said Mone was “on suspension” from the Lords.
Asked whether as a self-confessed liar she should return to the upper house, Callanan said: “I would hope that she would see sense.”
Pressed on what he meant, he added: “I would hope that she would not be coming back to the House of Lords.”
Guardian investigations found Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were involved with PPE Medpro, which was awarded contracts worth £203m in May and June 2020 after she approached ministers, including Michael Gove, with an offer to supply PPE.
Labour has called on Gove to appear before MPs to face questions over the scandal.
In a letter to Gove, the levelling-up secretary, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, wrote: “This series of events has led to civil litigation and a National Crime Agency investigation. Yet these ongoing matters should not preclude you from addressing questions about your own involvement and the role of the government.”
Speaking to BBC1’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Mone admitted that she and Barrowman, through their lawyers, repeatedly falsely denied they had any connection to PPE Medpro.
She said she regretted having done so: “We’ve done a lot of good but if we were to say anything that we have done that we are sorry for, and that’s … We should have told the press straight up, straight away, nothing to hide … I was just protecting my family. And again, I’m sorry for that, but I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. No one.”
