Michelle’s Mone about intrusion just isn’t washing
Readers are reacting to Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman’s BBC interview where they addressed PPE profiteering during the pandemic.
Mone did apologise for not disclosing ties to PPE MedPro but claimed lying to the media is not a crime, emphasising she’s been scapegoated for the government’s PPE failures and that she’s suffered press intrusions.
It’s not surprising then, that the interview left readers questioning her lack of accountability and the point of a House of Lords.
Read on to see what readers think about this issue, among others.
Share your thoughts in the comments
'Why not just apologise and leave it at that?'
Conservative baroness Michelle Mone has admitted lying that she would not profit from a government Covid PPE contract that netted her husband £60million (Metro, Mon).
In her interview with the BBC, she should just have apologised and left it at that. It’s vaingloriously arrogant for her to have admitted her lie but claimed it not to have been a crime and that her family suffered press intrusions.
What has she got to say to the families who lost loved ones? The police should be allowed to investigate the practises exposed by this interview and prosecute those culpable. Niyi Ogunbadejo, via email
‘She repeatedly lied’
It’s appalling that Baroness Michelle Mone(y) repeatedly lied about profiting from the £200million contract secured for her husband Doug Barrowman’s company.
For her to then have the audacity to say it wasn’t a crime is just unbelievable.
Why did the contract allow for the production of enough PPE to last five years, when it was known PPE only had a shelf life of two years?
And why do we still have the House of Lords (with her in it)? It’s archaic, elitist, and unrepresentative of the general population. I think it’s time it was abolished. We must be the laughing stock of the world. Again! Tina, Greater Manchester
‘What happened with the Baroness shows this country is corrupt’
The baroness is moaning again. She says that she told the government that she was involved with her husband’s company, Medpro, which got the £200million PPE contract.
She had successfully lobbied for the company to access the government’s ‘VIP lane’, set up to fast-track the procurement of emergency Covid supplies.
What she didn’t do is inform the general public – who supplied the cash – through the register of members interests with the House Of Lords. So, Lady Moan, stop moaning – you got caught with your hands in the till like so many of your colleagues have.
This country isn’t corrupt? Pull the other one, it opens the cash drawer. George Curley, London
‘Why do we need a House of Lords?’
Aside from the issue of potential financial corruption, doesn’t the whole Michelle Mone scandal beg the question of why we still need a House of ‘Lords’?
Lots of things about it leave a nasty taste in the mouth – from Boris Johnson dishing out titles to friends and family like jewels from a treasure chest, to the has-been David Cameron being brought back into government without being democratically elected.
Why would anyone want to be called a Lord or Lady nowadays?
I’m sure there are many hard-working peers but I’d question why someone would want to be called Lord or Lady nowadays, other than for sheer ‘snob status’.
Nadine Dorries threw her teddy out because she didn’t get the peerage she wanted, Karren Brady autocratically reminds potential Apprentices ‘It’s Baroness Brady to you’, Evgeny Lebedev coveted a lordship like a priceless Faberge egg but hardly goes to the House… the whole system has been brought into disrepute and needs to be abolished. William, Leeds
So Michelle Mone says she has been through hell. Welcome to the real world. Countless thousands of people are struggling to make ends meet so, forgive me, but I for one won’t shed a single tear. Allan, Manchester
Baroness Mone(y) is an Isle of Man resident. Given how much effort the Manx government has put into building up a financial services industry without a shady reputation like that of the Cayman Islands, will its parliament propose a motion to revoke her and her husband’s residence rights as ‘undesirables’? Roger, Stocksbridge
False fears over an expanded EU and is Sunak following Meloni?
Peter Fieldman (MetroTalk, Tue) lists all the reasons why he thinks expansion of the EU is a bad idea.
These include, a large group of nations could never agree on anything, the rich countries would gang up on the poorer ones or, conversely, break away to form an elite club, illegal migration would increase and Vladimir Putin wouldn’t like it.
Of course, all these arguments could also have been applied to previous expansions of the EU from the original six to the existing 27.
Largely, these dire predictions have not come true and the UK has discovered that not being in the EU is not a protection from illegal migration.
In my view, the fact that Putin dislikes the EU is a very good reason for being in it!
Martin, London
Rishi Sunak seems to be using the same derogatory language about immigrants as the home secretary he sacked.
Suella Braverman called them ‘invaders’ – he says we are ‘overwhelmed’.
They appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Is Mr Sunak worried that the right wing of the Tory party might ditch him and replace him with Ms Braverman?
Is he concerned that Tory members at the next general election might vote for Richard Tice’s Reform party? Or is he being influenced by the anti-immigration views of Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy whom he met over the weekend?
Most British people are not unduly concerned about immigration. They want it controlled but do they want immigrants to be demonised by ministers? I don’t think so. Am I wrong? Al Charlton, via email
MORE : Michelle Mone says ‘not a crime’ to lie to press about £60,000,000 PPE contract profit
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