Carol Vorderman appears to call out former friend Michelle Mone amid PPE contract investigation
‘Where do we start?’ asks presenter
Carol Vorderman appears to have criticised her former friend, Tory peer Michelle Mone, who has been accused of ‘bullying’ officials into awarding £200million of PPE contracts to a firm she later received millions from.
Over the weekend, The Sunday Times reported that Baroness Mone, 51, recommended PPE Medpro, the company which her husband Douglas Barrowman was a director of.
She was then accused of lobbying Mr Gove and procurement minister Lord Agnew.
“She was rude, abrasive and bullying,” a Whitehall source said to the publication. “Her hectoring tone was very irritating.”
As a result of the contracts, Baroness Mone’s husband was reportedly paid £65million by PPE Medpro.
In an extract from Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries, published in The Daily Mail, the former health secretary also claimed that Mone subjected him to “extraordinarily aggressive” lobbying.
On Monday 5 December, Vorderman, who is known to have previously been friends with Baroness Mone, tweeted about the allegations.
“After £221m PPE contracts, Michelle Mone threatened Hancock that if a 2nd company she was ‘helping’ to get a flow test contract for wasn’t allowed to ‘get in the game’ the awarding would seem ‘corrupt’ and she’d ‘blow this all wide open,” she tweeted. “Where do we start??”
In response to the allegations, Baroness Mone has denied any link with the company, and said that she “completely refutes” allegations of wrongdoing.
“I was asked to help at a time of national emergency,” she said.
“I declared all necessary interests and have done nothing wrong.” Her lawyer added that she can’t comment, and “is under no duty” to.
Mr Barrowman and PPE Medpro’s lawyer said: “There is much inaccuracy in the portrayal of the alleged ‘facts’ and a number of them are completely wrong.”
This is not the first time Vorderman had criticised her former friend. In November, she tweeted about other allegations against Baroness Mone regarding the same PPE firm.
The duo appeared to be close in 2012 and were reported to have enjoyed going on nights out together.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Mone and Vorderman for comment.