Independent readers call for Baroness Mone to be stripped of her title following PPE scandal

Have your say: Readers were almost unanimous in their calls to remove Baroness Mone from the House of Lords

Entrepreneur Michelle Mone is admitted to the House of Lords as Baroness Mone of Mayfair, after being made a Tory peer. (PA Archive)

Calls for Baroness Michelle Mone to be stripped of her peerage have intensified this week, following her admission in a recent interview that she lied to the media about her involvement in a company that supplied millions of pounds worth of PPE equipment to the government during the Covid pandemic.

Leader of the opposition Sir Keir Starmer added significantly to the pressure, declaring: “I don’t think she should be in the Lords. I think the government should be held to account for this.”

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak was more cautious: “The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we’re pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters. That’s how seriously I take it and the government takes it.”

Independent readers, however, were almost unanimous in their calls to remove Baroness Mone from the House of Lords when we asked for your opinions this week.

Here’s what you had to say:

‘Think about the bigger picture’

Business is about who you know, not what you know a lot of the time in my experience and grabbing an opportunity whenever from whoever you can. Lying probably not a good idea in the scheme of things, but show me any business person that isn’t economic with truth when it suits, eh?

Hindsight’s a wonderful thing and I wonder what else this government was supposed to do, given the circumstances where it turns out nobody knew what they were doing, took bad advice, ignored good advice all to end up with some disastrous mistakes.

I just think folks need to step back, think about the bigger picture before making judgements

OWLDEGIT

‘Morals of an alley cat’

Why is it even questionable if she should be kicked out of the House of Lords? A proven liar, and a call to arms, really? She used an horrific situation for her and her family’s gain instead of doing good then lied throughout. Morals of an alley cat. Get her out!

BJ4

‘Hard-wired to be deceitful’

Quite honestly, apart from a whacking donation to the Tories, I’ve no idea why Cameron elevated her to the Lord’s in the first place.

Her contributions to the House averaged about one a year and she’s done little to contribute to anything except for her self-promotion and enrichment. Her morality compass is broken (if it ever existed - she apparently fessed up to lying on CV to get her first job).

She has brought the House of Lords into serious dis-repute and she has repeatedly told lies to protect the secrecy of her offshore trust arrangements and wealth. She may well be excellent at flogging knickers and bras but I rather think she’s hard-wired to be deceitful, unethical, greedy and immoral.

TheSnowQueen

‘Integrity, honour and respect’

I guess that depends on whether or not the HoL represents an ideological example of what the common person should be aspiring to and looking at for leadership.

With members like Mone the example is not one of integrity, honour and respect.

Freedom

‘She should return the £60m’

Yes, she should be thrown out. It is morally incorrect to knowingly make a profit out of the people. She should return the £60m and also the Medpro contract made void in regards to equipment not fit for purpose. All monies to be paid back to us, the tax payer.

MrKnowitall

‘She lied’

“.. peer insists she ‘can’t see’ what was wrong with her actions “

Just like Boris who still believes he has done nothing wrong in Partygate.

Boris got kicked out of the HoC because he lied and in that respect Baroness Mone also should be kicked out of the HoL because she lied.

Unless, of course, there is the ‘one rule to them, one rule to us’ clause being applied

Rasputin007

‘An institution which is long overdue for reform’

She would remain Baroness Mone, even if barred from the House of Lords. It would take an act of parliament to remove this title and quite frankly barring her is no punishment. Her appearances and voting record in the House of Lords have been minimal. The English way is to hope these dodgy people just go away and stay out of the public eye.

Lord Archer? Lady Porter? All distinctly unworthy recipients of high honours and both permanently absent from the House of Lords. Do we really want people like Michelle Mone determining which laws are passed in this country ? Probably not.

The bigger question is what is the House of Lords for, apart from ennobling wealthy individuals who give money to political parties ? Its an institution which is long overdue for reform. Michelle Mone merely a symptom of this.

Rantovani

‘A huge profit from the public purse’

If only Mone’s morals were as uplifting as the bras she made her money from. While public servants such as health workers and many others gave themselves selflessly in response to the COVID crisis, she and her husband took the opportunity of a huge profit from the public purse. Should she be in the House of Lords? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

TheDisillusionedMasses

‘Why lie?’

She is a Peer of the Realm and in the House overseeing the laws made and enforced in the UK on all of us she should have already been removed.

‘I told them what I had done’ - does not excuse her actions. It does implicate those that knew the details - they too should be brought to book.

She admitted she lied about her involvement - if this were totally innocent why lie? She even went further by making threats of legal action against those questioning that lie.

An apology after being caught, denying involvement and threatening legal action is not an apology it’s a hollow rouse to deflect and hardly a convincing sign of contrition. An apology that was followed by a statement that she did nothing wrong!

ArcticFox

‘Collective snouts in the trough’

She absolutely should go, but then on the same token Sunak should go for the multiple times he’s given contracts to companies that happen to benefit his wife’s investments. Pretty much everyone else who used the “VIP Lane” needs some forensic accounting work on them as well (Hancock especially.)

And if we’re going down this route people like Streeting taking cash from American private health companies should block him from running the NHS due to a clear conflict of interest.

Will any of this happen? Of course not, because they’re all looking out for each other as usual so they can keep their collective snouts in the trough.

Mike

‘Stripped of their titles’

She and the rest of the dodgy peers involved in corrupt activities need to be stripped of their titles even if it takes an act of Parliament. The same should apply to corrupt MPs, a simple and pointless apology in the Commons is not a punishment or deterrent.

Disillusioned

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for this article. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original article.

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