LINGERIE millionaire Michelle Mone kept the spotlight on Tory sleaze today as she stepped up her attack on government ministers.
Lady Mone, who has now admitted profiting massively from personal protective equipment (PPE) deals during the Covid-19 pandemic after years of denial, hit out at former health minister Lord Bethell, who had questioned her honesty.
Drawing attention to the fact that Lord Bethell is one of several government high-ups whose messages sent during the pandemic have inexplicably gone missing, her ladyship tweeted: “You seem to have mysteriously discovered access to your text messages from 2020. Now you’ve finally found them, will you be sending them all to the Covid inquiry?”
Lady Mone, who has now quit the Tory Party, has also claimed that ministers from Rishi Sunak down were well aware of her connections to PPE Medpro, the firm which secured hundreds of millions of pounds in government contracts to supply PPE.
Levelling Up Secretary Michal Gove, who is particularly in the frame as he headed the Cabinet Office at the time, said today that he would answer questions on his links to Lady Mone at the Covid inquiry.
The well-connected baroness and her husband claim that they made a 30 per cent profit on the cosy deal — around £60 million — a rate unavailable to the average capitalist and one which inevitably places a strain on their moral compass.
However, the government is now seeking much of its money back and the National Crime Agency is investigating the deal. Mr Gove said that he hoped the probe “results in a case being brought.”
Lady Mone has nevertheless insisted that she has been “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,” she added, a point contested by Lord Bethell.
She has acknowledged consistently lying to the media about her role, supposedly to protect her family.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the episode as a “shocking disgrace from top to bottom” and said that Lady Mone should be made to quit the Lords, to which she was appointed for the usual obscure reasons by David Cameron.
Mr Sunak made his own contribution to sleaze speculaton today when the Prime Minister told a committee of MPs that if he forgot to declare any conflict of interests during his testimony, he would do so later.
