Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has demanded the government “comes clean” over the role ministers played in dealing with Baroness Mone during the pandemic.
The Tory-appointed peer and her husband, Doug Barrowman, have been embroiled in a scandal after a company they had links with was awarded multi-million pound contracts by the government for personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the COVID crisis.
The pair continually denied any involvement with PPE MedPro, but leaked documents showed she had recommended the firm to Cabinet Office ministers – including the now Housing Secretary Michael Gove – which saw the company added to the so-called “VIP lane” and given two contracts totalling more than £200m.
On Sunday, Baroness Mone admitted her involvement with the business, and that around £60m in profits from the contracts was being held in trusts by Mr Barrowman, which she could benefit from in the future.
She also claimed she contacted Mr Gove at the start of the pandemic following a “call to arms for all lords, baronesses, MPs, senior civil servants, to help, because they needed massive quantities of PPE”, telling the BBC: “I just said, ‘we can help, and we want to help’. And he was like, ‘oh my goodness, this is amazing’.”
But she insisted the government had made her and her husband “scapegoats” for wider failings of PPE procurement throughout the pandemic.
More on Conservatives
Related Topics:
Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge
Sky News Monday to Thursday at 7pm.
Watch live on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube.
Sir Keir called the scenario “a shocking disgrace from top to bottom”, adding: “As every day goes past, there are more questions that need to be answered.”
But he focused in on the alleged roles of Mr Gove and other ministers, saying they “may have started this unhappy story in the first place”.
Advertisement
The Labour leader told reporters: “The government needs to come clean. It needs to make a statement [to the Commons] about that.”
He added: “There are now serious questions that I think Michael Gove [and] the government now need to answer.
“Who made the original contact? What was the nature of that discussion that led to the situation that we now learn developed?
“I think they should make a statement in the House of Commons today about this so that the public can hear first-hand what actually happened here.”
However, despite the government confirming three separate ministerial statements in the Commons this afternoon, none will focus on the scandal.
Tweeting after the interview, Baroness Mone accused Mr Gove and the Department of Health and Social Care of overseeing “huge waste” in PPE contracts, adding they had had “questions to answer for a very long time”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:22
Rishi Sunak says the government takes the case ‘extremely seriously’
Lingerie entrepreneur Baroness Mone was appointed as a peer by David Cameron in 2015, but she is currently taking a leave of absence.
The Lords’ standards commissioner is carrying out an investigation into whether she breached the code of conduct by not declaring her interests in PPE MedPro.
Asked whether the peer should be expelled from the Lords, Sir Keir said: “I don’t think she should be in the Lords. I think the government should be held to account for this.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak refused to comment on the situation due to live legal proceedings, as PPE MedPro is currently being sued by the Department of Health and Social Care over claims millions of the gowns they supplied failed to meet the standard required – something Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman deny.
The company is also under investigation by the National Crime Agency.
Mr Sunak insisted, however, that he and the government “take all these things incredibly seriously”.
But Baroness Mone again hit back, posting on X – formerly known as Twitter: “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.”
The man who served 14 years in jail for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
It follows reporting in The Sun newspaper that Jake Fahri, 35, was a drill rapper releasing music under the name TEN, who conceals his identity with a balaclava, and was played on BBC 1Xtra.
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Jimmy Mizen’s family who deserve better than to see their son’s murderer shamelessly boasting about his violent crime.”
Jimmy’s father Barry told Sky News: “We’re not gloating or anything, in a way it’s quite sad.”
His son bled to death after Fahri threw an oven dish at him in a south London bakery on 10 May 2008.
The dish shattered on his chin and severed an artery in the schoolboy’s neck.
Fahri was 19 when he was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years and was released on licence in June 2023.
More from UK
His music was played on BBC 1Xtra less than 18 months later, the Sun reported, adding that DJ Theo Johnson named him an “up-and-coming star”.
Jimmy’s father earlier said he and his wife Margaret were “stunned into silence” when they were told about Fahri’s music, which often features violent themes.
In one song, which appears to reference Jimmy’s death, he raps about “sharpening” a blade.
“Judge took a look at me, before the trial even started he already knows he’s gonna throw the book at me,” the lyrics say.
Another track includes the lines: “See a man’s soul fly from his eyes and his breath gone… I wanted more, it made it less wrong. Seeing blood spilled same floor he was left on.”
The BBC has said the artist’s tracks do not feature on any BBC playlists, and that a track which appeared to reference Jimmy’s death had never been played on its channels.
A spokesman for the broadcaster added there were “no further plans to play his music”, adding: “We were not aware of his background and we in no way condone his actions.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “All offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions. As this case shows, we will recall them to prison if they break the rules.”
Jimmy’s parents founded the Mizen Foundation after their son’s death. The charity helps young people in London who are escaping violence.
Mr Mizen said: “It appears that if he’s been recalled to prison, he must’ve breached his licence conditions
The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.
German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.
“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”
Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.
Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.
Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.
Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.
He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.
“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”
Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.
In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.
The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.
If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.
He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.
Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.
Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.
The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.
The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.
Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.
“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.
“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.
“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.
An investigation, led by the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, is under way and inquiries remain ongoing, police said.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Kimball Edey said specialist officers “are working around the clock to gather as much information as possible,” and that the force’s “thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims at this unbelievably difficult time”.