Mail Online

MONE’S ‘THREATS’ OVER COVID FIRM

Hancock accuses Tory peer of ‘aggressive’ lobbying

By Inderdeep Bains Deputy Chief Reporter

Michelle Mone used ‘extraordinarily aggressive’ lobbying in support of a covid contract, according to Matt hancock.

He accuses the Tory peer in his explosive new book of sending him a ‘threatening’ message complaining the firm she was helping had not secured a lucrative deal. In the Pandemic Diaries, which is being serialised on The Mail+ and in the Daily Mail, he says that by the end of the email she had ‘worked herself into a complete frenzy’ and was making ‘wild accusations’.

The allegations will come as a fresh blow to the former lingerie tycoon – nicknamed ‘Baroness Bra’ – who is already facing questions over whether she benefited financially from the profits of a different company.

She is under investigation by the House of Lords commissioners for standards for allegedly not declaring

an interest in PPE Medpro, which won a £200million contract at the height of the pandemic. But now Mr Hancock has revealed that the baroness demanded his ‘urgent help’ with a second company – which he has not named – in June last year.

In his diaries he writes: ‘Baroness Michelle Mone has sent me an extraordinarily aggressive email complaining that a company she’s helping isn’t getting the multi-million-pound contracts it deserves. She claims the firm, which makes lateral flow test kits, “has had a dreadful time” trying to cut through red tape and demanded my “urgent help” before it all comes out in the media. “I am going to blow this all wide open” she threatened.’

In other revelations, Mr Hancock:

■ Insists the winter lockdown would not have been needed had Boris Johnson listened to his pleas for tougher measures;

■ Reveals a credible security threat forced officials to make a dramatic last-minute change to the route of the first 800,000 vaccine doses;

■ Says he was ‘furious’ at accusations of being the infamous ‘chatty rat’ leaker;

■ Complains he was ridiculed in Westminster for believing in the vaccine.

The ex-health secretary says Baroness Mone complained the US company Innova had secured a ‘monopoly position’ by winning several contracts and rivals couldn’t ‘get in the game’.

He adds: ‘By the end of the message, she seemed to have worked herself into a complete frenzy and was throwing around wild accusations: “I smell a rat here. It is more than the usual red tape, incompetence and bureaucracy. That’s expected! I believe there is corruption here at the highest levels”.

‘She concluded by urging me to intervene “to prevent the next bombshell being dropped on the Government”.

‘I read the message again, stunned. Was she threatening me? It certainly looked that way.’

Mr Hancock said further investigation revealed that the company she was representing had not won any contracts because it had not passed rigorous validation tests.

He said he chose to ignore the message, adding: ‘I will simply not reply ... I won’t be pushed around by aggressive peers representing commercial clients.’

Yesterday, a representative for Baroness Mone declined to comment.

She has previously denied benefiting financially and has claimed she ‘was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity’.

The baroness is also accused of trying to ‘bully and hector’ two other ministers into awarding contracts to PPE Medpro.

She was reported to have aggressively lobbied Michael Gove and Lord Agnew in May 2020 to secure lucrative business for the company which supplies face masks and medical gowns. Mr Gove, then Cabinet Office minister, was said to have been so exasperated by her insistence that he described her as a ‘ right pain in the arse’, the Sunday Times reported.

PPE Medpro was eventually awarded two contracts worth more than £200million without tender but the gowns from China were never used after failing NHS quality checks.

A government source was said to have stressed that ministers did not make decisions on who contracts were awarded to.

Baroness Mone has been facing mounting pressure since it was reported that a secret offshore trust, which she and her children were beneficiaries of, is believed to have received £29million from PPE Medpro’s profits. The funds were allegedly transferred into the Isle of Man trust by Douglas Barrowman, now her husband, who according to leaked documents was paid at least £65million by PPE Medpro.

The allegations have led to growing calls for the Tory whip to be removed from the 51-yearold who was appointed a peer in 2015.

But the party said she would retain the whip while the National Crime Agency investigates, adding that the Lords standards probe was ongoing. The peer and her husband have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

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