Michelle Mone claims ministers knew about her links to PPE firm

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Michelle Mone has claimed ministers knew about her involvement with a PPE firm “from the very beginning”, as she faced calls to step back permanently from the House of Lords.

The peer dug in to the row by hitting out at Rishi Sunak after he said he was taking the issue “incredibly seriously”. It came after Mone admitted she lied when she denied having links to PPE Medpro, which made millions of pounds in profits from a Government deal to supply equipment during the pandemic after she recommended it to ministers.

Keir Starmer said she should be expelled from the Lords as he urged the Government to “come clean” about the scandal he described as a “shocking disgrace”.

The Labour leader piled pressure on ministers to answer “serious questions” about what they knew, including who started the conversations with Lady Mone in the first place.On the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme she admitted she did not tell the truth about her connection to PPE Medpro, while insisting that she and her husband have “no case to answer”.She conceded she stands to benefit from contracts worth more than £200 million to supply gowns and face masks.The Prime Minister told reporters during a visit to Scotland on Monday: “The Government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we’re pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters.”Reacting to his remarks, Mone tweeted: “What is Rishi Sunak talking about?“I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the Government and the NHS in my dealings with them.“They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.”But this was rejected by Tory former health minister Lord Bethell, who replied that she “wasn’t ‘honest’ about her financial interest to me”.“She didn’t