Thousands back call to strip Michelle Mone of peerage as she lashes out at Kemi Badenoch

A group representing Covid bereaved families said Baroness Mone's place in the House of Lords was a 'slap in the face' to those who lost loved ones in the pandemic

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More than 65,000 people have signed a petition calling for Michelle Mone to be stripped of her peerage and kicked out of the House of Lords.

Campaigners representing bereaved families said it was a "slap in the face" to those that lost loved ones in the pandemic that Baroness Mone remained in the Lords. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: “For bereaved families, her presence in Parliament insults the memory of those who died and exposes the lack of accountability for the profiteering and failures that cost lives.”

The Scottish lingerie tycoon is under intense pressure over her links to scandal-hit PPE Medpro, which has been ordered to repay over £122million to the UK Government for supplying faulty goods.

The High Court ruled on Wednesday that the firm had breached its contract with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) by supplying 25 million surgical gowns that failed to meet sterility standards

Baroness Mone said today that she had "no wish to return" to the House of Lords as a Conservative peer in a furious letter to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who said she had brought "embarrassment and shame to the party", and should have the "book thrown at her".

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She was made a Tory peer by David Cameron but she went on a leave of absence from the Lords in 2022 and lost the Conservative whip.

It would require an act of Parliament to remove her peerage but she could choose to resign from being a member of the Lords. She has only said that she won't return as a Conservative.

In a letter to Ms Badenoch, she said there "seems to be a bit of amnesia" about her loss of the Conservative whip, stating that she had "removed it myself by taking a leave of absence".

She added: "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."

Baroness Mone accused the Tory leader of using "inflammatory language" towards her. "My role was exactly the same as all other Conservative MPs and peers who were trying to help provide PPE," she said.

"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." She later said she had "never received a penny from PPE Medpro".

The Tories said she would not get the Conservative whip if she ever came back to the Lords. A Conservative 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."

Baroness Mone also wrote to Keir Starmer on Thursday to accuse the Government of pursuing a "vendetta" against her after several politicians, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, said she should not return to the Lords.

The Mirror first revealed the links between Baroness Mone and PPE Medpro, which won lucrative contracts to supply protective equipment during the pandemic.

Baroness Mone denied any involvement in the firm to the Mirror but it later emerged she and her husband Doug Barrowman had benefited from £65million in profits from the company.

Baroness Mone referred PPE Medpro to ministers through the so-called VIP lane in 2020 as the Government scrambled to get protective kit as Covid took hold.

In 2023, the couple admitted to lying to the press about their involvement in PPE Medpro, which was set up by a consortium led by Mr Barrowman. The couple, who deny any wrongdoing, hit out at the ruling this week.

Baroness Mone described the judgment as “shocking but all too predictable” and “nothing less than an establishment win for the government in a case that was too big for them to lose.”

Mr Barrowman said: "This judgment is a whitewash of the facts and shows that justice was being seen to be done, where the outcome was always certain for the DHSC and the Government."