Keir Starmer has called for Michelle Mone to be kicked out of the House of Lords after she admitted lying about her involvement in a row over a multi-million pound personal protective equipment (PPE) contract.
The Labour leader said “the government needs to come clean” about the controversy after it emerged Michael Gove was the initial point of contact between Mone and ministers.
HuffPost UK can also reveal that Mone is no longer a Tory Party member - and may never have been at all.
Mone, who was made a Tory peer by David Cameron in 2015, repeatedly denied any involvement with PPE Medpro, a consortium led by her husband which secured contracts worth £202 million with the government at the start of the pandemic.
But on the BBC yesterday, she admitted lying to journalists and confirmed that she stands to benefit from the £60m profit PPE Medpro made from the deal.
The government is now sueing the company for breach of contract, while the National Crime Agency has launched an investigation.
Speaking today, Starmer said: “I think this is a shocking disgrace from top to bottom and as every day goes past there are more questions that need to be answered.
“There are now suggestions that there was early private contact with members of the cabinet that may have started this unhappy story in the first place.
“So the government needs to come clean, needs to make a statement about that.”
Baroness Mone announced she was taking a “leave of absence” from the Lords a year ago.
Asked if she should now be expelled, Starmer said: “I don’t think she should be in the Lords, I think the government should be held to account for this.”
Rishi Sunak today refused to be drawn on the specifics of the row.
He said: “We take all of these things incredibly seriously and that’s why the government is taking legal action.
“And because there’s a criminal investigation ongoing I can’t comment any further.”
It is understood Mone lost the Tory whip in the Lords when she took her leave of absence.
Party sources have also told HuffPost UK that she may not even have been a Conservative member.
However, she is still listed as a Tory peer on the parliament website.