DAVID Cameron has said that he nominated Michelle Mone to be made a member of the House of Lords because she was a “proud Scot, proud Brit and a proud Conservative”.
The Foreign Secretary, when asked by STV News whether he took any responsibility for Mone being able to refer her husband’s company PPE Medpro to supply pandemic PPE via the so-called “VIP lane” as a result of his nomination, he responded: “Well, obviously Michelle Mone is responsible for what she does.
“Yes, I did nominate her for a peerage because at the time from what I could see she was a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur, a proud Scot, a proud Brit, and a proud Conservative.”
READ MORE: Scottish university responds to call to strip Michelle Mone of degree
SNP MSP Collette Stevenson said, meanwhile, that Cameron's comments show that the "Michelle Mone scandal shows no signs of going away".
She added: "What makes the situation even murkier is that Baroness Mone says she is still paying membership fees to the Scottish Tories - what are they doing with this money and why haven't they returned it?
"These questions need urgent answers and the public interest in this matter is overwhelming - the Tories must set the record straight."Westminster doesn't work for Scotland. At the next election, voting SNP can remove the Tories from each of their seats and deliver a better future for Scotland with the full powers of independence."
It comes after assets linked to Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman were frozen, as a National Crime Agency investigation into PPE Medpro continues.
According to the Financial Times, about £75 million of assets, including a townhouse in Belgravia and an estate on the Isle of Man, have either been frozen or restrained following an application by the Crown Prosecution Service.
A spokesman for the couple said: “This comes as a result of a consensual process during which negotiations took place with the CPS.
“It allows the wider businesses and assets of the Barrowman family to operate normally and free from any restrictions or uncertainties.
“Doug and Michelle did not contest the application and were happy to offer up these assets, which means they can begin the task of proving their innocence more quickly.
“Mr Barrowman finds it deplorable that private matters such as this are being conducted in the public realm via leaks from government departments and the CPS.”
In response, the CPS said: “It would not be in the interests of the CPS to leak information about involvement in any case.”
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is also engaged in breach of contract proceedings over a 2020 deal on the supply of gowns.
Lady Mone has previously admitted she lied when she denied having connections to the company, a consortium led by her husband, which was awarded contracts worth more than £200 million to supply gowns and face masks.
The lingerie entrepreneur stands to benefit from its £60 million in profits that have been placed into a trust by her husband.
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