Covid bereaved households urge Keir Starmer to strip Baroness Michelle Mone of peerage

It comes as Keir Starmer ordered officials to draw up legislation to remove Peter Mandelson’s title amid a growing political storm over the Jeffrey Esptein files

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Keir Starmer is being urged by Covid bereaved families to strip Baroness Michelle Mone of her peerage.

It comes as the PM ordered officials to draw up legislation to remove Peter Mandelson’s title amid a growing political storm over the Jeffrey Esptein files. More than 87,000 people previously signed a petition calling for Ms Mone to be stripped of her title over her links to scandal-hit PPE Medpro, which was ordered last year to repay over £122million to the UK Government for supplying faulty goods.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: “We are calling on the Government to use this moment to finally strip Michelle Mone of her peerage, something that should have happened long ago.

READ MORE: Baroness Michelle Mone-linked firm PPE Medpro wound up over failing to pay £150mREAD MORE: Covid fraud under the Tories cost the taxpayer £10.9 billion

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“Bereaved families must be listened to, no one who profited during the pandemic, with links to companies that sold faulty PPE and put lives at risk, has any place in the House of Lords. More than 230,000 people died in the UK, this is about accountability, not politics. MPs and peers must do the right thing, and they must do it now.”

Last year the government won its fight against PPE Medpro – a company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone. The firm, a consortium led by Baroness Mone’s husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, was awarded government contracts by the former Tory administration. The couple have denied wrongdoing.

Earlier Labour MPs told the Mirror that legislation being designed to strip Lord Mandelson’s peerage “must be extended” to apply to Baroness Mone. They added: “There should be a system for removing titles through a process for anything like that. But shouldn’t be about diverting attention from Mandelson but should be about how to fix a broken system.”

Another Labour MP claimed including Ms Mone would be a mistake. They explained: “It sets a precedent in any event without naming Michelle Mone, and by the Government naming Mone, it detracts from the issue that the PM is grappling with. It’s cleaner if we just crack on with the Mandelson scenario and the precedent is set because it then applies to all peers”.

Responding to the bereaved families, a spokesperson for Ms Mone said: “Baroness Michelle Mone has maintained her innocence from day one and has not done anything wrong. She and her husband were asked for their help because of their manufacturing experience and, following that request, declared their interests from the outset. They hid nothing from the Government. Their involvement was fully transparent and known at the time, and there was nothing untoward.

“Baroness Mone was not responsible for the £10.9 billion overspend by the UK Government during the pandemic. She was not involved in the management of the pandemic, public spending decisions, or the tragic loss of lives that occurred.

“She was also not responsible for decisions to purchase five years’ worth of PPE when only around four months’ supply was required, nor for the fact that much of that PPE had a shelf life of approximately two years. These procurement and stockpiling decisions were made by the Government and were entirely outside her remit or responsibility.

“It is deeply unfair that Baroness Mone and her husband continue to be treated as scapegoats for wider systemic failures, particularly when the facts have long been in the public domain. Those directing their criticism should focus their time and energy on identifying the real root causes of what went wrong and on those responsible for managing the pandemic and public spending on a day-to-day basis. Baroness Mone is extremely disappointed by how the pandemic was handled and sends her sincere condolences to all the families who lost loved ones.”