A Tory peer has been reported for allegedly sending racist text messages.
Tory peer Michelle Mone has been accused of harassment and bullying in Whatsapp messages she reportedly sent after a crash between her yacht and another in Monaco in June 2019.
PPE
She was also embroiled in a PPE row. In November Labour called for an investigation into the conduct and honesty Mone after she repeatedly denied any association with a PPE company it then since emerged she recommended to the government.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) revealed that Mone referred the company, PPE Medpro Ltd, as a potential supplier.
It was then entered into a “VIP” fast-track, high priority lane for firms with political connections before being awarded two contracts, for face masks and surgical gowns, valued in total at £203m.
Formed on 12 May last year, PPE Medpro was administered and provided with directors by Knox House Trust (KHT), an Isle of Man corporate services firm run by Mone’s husband, Douglas Barrowman.
At the time Angela Rayner tweeted: “The VIP lane is a racket. Corruption, dishonesty, cover ups and taxpayers’ money being handed out to Conservative donors and mates of Ministers. We need an independent investigation into this whole corrupt racket.”
Racist message
In the correspondence, she allegedly referred to a man as a ‘waste of a man’s white skin’, according to the Guardian newspaper which has seen screenshots of the messages.
The man who was allegedly sent the messages had been a guest on the other yacht, involved in the incident when a crew member died, when it collided with Mone and husband Barrowman’s vessel.
Mone then allegedly wrote to him: ‘OMG what a pile of crap!! You are talking to me, a smart, bright individual who doesn’t get taken in by your shit! In fact my bulls**t detector was on you from day 1. You & your mental loony of a girlfriend have been parting [sic] like mad! … You need to get a grip and have respect for a guy that was killed!!! Funny how your mad girlfriend has now deleted all the pictures, don’t worry I have screenshots of the dates and times. 48 hours after the guy was killed. Your [sic] a low life, a waste of a mans [sic] white skin so don’t give us your lies. Your [sic] a total disgrace.’
Mone’s representative told the Guardian: ‘Baroness Mone is 100% not a racist. Baroness Mone and her husband have built over 15 schools in Africa in the past three years.’
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