Michelle Mone calls on establishment and their spin doctors to end PPE ‘vendetta’ against her

By Bill Heaney

Michelle Mone has written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and demanded an end to the “vendetta” against her over the PPE Medpro scandal.

The lingerie tycoon has urged Starmer to make Chancellor Rachel Reeves retract a “dangerous and inflammatory statement” about her.

She says she is living in fear and raised the cases of two former MPs who were murdered, as well as the suicide of late TV presenter Caroline Flack.

She also accused the Labour Government of an “orchestrated campaign of intimidation and reputational destruction”.

Michelle was at the centre of a deal to supply 25 million surgical gowns to the UK Government during the Covid pandemic.

But a judge in the High Court ordered that PPE Medpro – a consortium led by Mrs Barrowman’s husband Doug – must repay the Government more than £121 million for breaching the contract.

Michelle, who was elevated to the House of Lord during the David Cameron premiership, is now facing calls for her peerage to be taken off her.

During a Labour Party conference fringe event this week, Rachel Reeves reportedly joked about having a vendetta against Lady Mone and Barrowman, saying: “Too right we do.”

Prime MInister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

In a letter to the PM, Mone writes: “I am writing to you in my personal capacity: first as a wife, second as a mother, and lastly as a Baroness.

“I feel compelled to alert you to the dangerous and inflammatory statement made by your Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves.”

She wrote of the “vendetta” claim: “This is one of the most troubling interventions ever made by a senior Minister of the Crown. The statement was not directed at PPE Medpro as a corporate entity in civil litigation, but at me personally.

“It confirms that the machinery of the State is being deployed with the specific object of pursuing a vendetta against me, a private citizen and fellow Parliamentarian.”

She added: “The Chancellor’s deliberate use of the term ‘vendetta’ a word connoting vengeance, feud and blood feud, is incendiary and has directly increased the risks to my personal safety.

“Since she spoke, my social media has gone into meltdown with threats and abuse. My family and I now live with a heightened and genuine fear of appearing in public.

“You understand Members of Parliament face elevated risks; we need only look at the tragedies of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess to understand the dangers of such reckless language.

“This issue goes far beyond politics. It raises grave constitutional, legal and human rights concerns. Ministers of the Crown cannot openly declare vendettas against individuals without undermining the rule of law, judicial independence, and public safety.”

In the letter, Mrs Barrowman also criticised the civil and criminal proceedings in relation to PPE Medpro, as well as alleged “public falsehoods” by Reeves.

She also urged the Prime Minister to correct the record: “I must address an outright falsehood put on the Parliamentary record. You stated in Parliament that my children had received £29 million into their bank accounts. This is a total lie.

“You know this to be false because of the ongoing investigations. To repeat this defamatory claim in Parliament is not only a gross abuse of privilege but a deliberate attempt to smear my family and incite public hostility against my children, who are entirely innocent of any involvement in this matter.

She wrote: “The consequences are severe. I attribute these directly to the campaign being waged by your Cabinet and your communications team to make this about me personally.

“These actions amount to an orchestrated campaign of intimidation and reputational destruction. They constitute misfeasance in public office. They risk breaching my rights under Articles 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which include the right to a fair trial and the right to private and family life, free from unjust State intrusion and hostility.”

Michelle concluded by demanding an “immediate and formal withdrawal” of the Chancellor’s statement and a “public clarification” there is no Government vendetta against her personally.

Meanwhile, Friday’s headlines said Michelle Mone says she has “no wish to return” to the House of Lords as a Tory peer — That’s if there was a Conservative Party left at the next election.