Tory peer Michelle Mone is taking a leave of absence from the Lords “to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her”, her spokesman has said.
It means she will not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings or be able to claim any allowance.
Baroness Mone has been linked to PPE Medpro, which won government contracts during the Covid pandemic.
Her lawyers previously said she “had no role or function in PPE Medpro”.
Her spokesman said the leave of absence was “with immediate effect” and was Baroness Mone’s decision.
Between May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.
Unusually, the company was only a few weeks old when it signed the first of these agreements.
In December 2020, BBC News reported that millions of medical gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.
PPE Medpro said at the time that it had delivered 100% of the contract to the terms specified and that it had supplied equipment “fully in accordance with the agreed contract, which included clear terms as to technical specification and performance criteria of the products”.
Glasgow-born businesswoman Baroness Mone, who joined the House of Lords in 2015, is being investigated by the Lords commissioner for standards over her “alleged involvement” in procuring contracts for the company.
However, the commissioner says he is unable to finalise or publish his report because “the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency of a criminal investigation”.
Properties linked to the company have previously been searched by the National Crime Agency.
Emails released under Freedom of Information laws show Baroness Mone referring the company to a government minister during the pandemic.
Last month, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the government of a “total failure of due diligence” and a “conflict of interest” in awarding the contracts to PPE Medpro.
She was responding to an investigation in the Guardian based on leaked documents that alleged Baroness Mone had financially benefited from the company.
She told MPs it appeared “tens of millions of pounds” from the money awarded to the company “ended up in offshore accounts connected to the individuals involved”.
Baroness Mone has not responded to requests for comment on the latest allegations.
However, asked in December 2020 about reports she was linked to the company, her lawyers told BBC News she “had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro”.
The Department of Health said: “Due diligence was carried out on all companies that were referred to the department and every company was subjected to the same checks.”
The department is currently in mediation with PPE Medpro over what it has described as an “underperforming contract” and said it was unable to comment on specifics.
Baroness Mone has not voted in the Lords since April and has not spoken in a debate since March 2020.
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24 November
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