Rishi Sunak has said he was “shocked” to read allegations surrounding the Conservative peer Michelle Mone, after Keir Starmer used prime minister’s questions to ask him how she appeared to have received millions from the profits of a PPE company.
“How did his colleague, Baroness Mone, end up with nearly £30m of taxpayers’ money in her bank account?” the Labour leader asked, citing information revealed by the Guardian.
“Like everyone else, I was absolutely shocked to read about the allegations,” Sunak replied, prompting jeers from the Labour benches.
He continued: “It’s absolutely right that she is no longer attending the House of Lords and therefore no longer has the Conservative whip. The one thing we know about the honourable gentlemen is that he is a lawyer – he should know there is a process in place. It is right that process concludes. I hope it is resolved promptly.”
On Tuesday, Mone’s spokesperson said she was taking leave of absence from the House of Lords with immediate effect, “in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her”.
It is her taking a leave of absence that means she no longer holds the Tory whip, given that the party had declined to remove it while she was still in the Lords.
Starmer pushed Sunak again on Mone, saying: “Everyone can see what’s happening here. A Tory politician got their hands on hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money, and then provided duff PPE. And he says he’s shocked? He was the chancellor. He signed cheques. How much is he going to get back?”
Sunak avoided the question, talking instead about rail strikes in response.
On Tuesday evening, Labour won a vote that will force the government to publish some documents underpinning the contracts.
The Guardian revealed last month that bank records indicate Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts
In addition, a second company that Mone lobbied ministers over in an attempt to secure government Covid contracts was a secret entity of her husband’s family office, the Guardian also reported.
It comes as a donor who recently defected to Labour said the Conservative party’s response to the allegations about Mone had only strengthened his determination to help oust it from office.
Gareth Quarry, a businessman who recently gave Labour £50,000, said he planned to increase that sum in the coming months, saying the Tories had trashed their reputation and that of the country.
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