Carol Vorderman doubles down in catfight with Baroness Bra
Baroness Boothroyd #BaronessBoothroyd
TV personality Carol Vorderman last night doubled down on allegations she made that Government Covid contracts funded the lifestyle of Michelle Mone’s husband – as the former friends’ extraordinary catfight turned bitter.
The two-time Rear of the Year winner launched into a tirade about the PPE scandal on ITV’s This Morning breakfast show, ending by turning to the camera and addressing the embattled lingerie tycoon by saying: ‘Sue me, Michelle.’
Baroness Mone is being investigated by National Crime Agency fraud experts and the House of Lords over claims she failed to declare an interest when lobbying for PPE Medpro to supply personal protection equipment to the Government and NHS for £203million during the Covid pandemic.
The peer, who denies claims she and her children pocketed £29million from the deals, has taken a break from the Lords to defend herself – while the Government sues PPE Medpro for supplying 25 million ‘unusable’ surgical gowns.
In a string of tweets, Miss Vorderman took further potshots at ‘baroness bra’, saying in one post: ‘For some reason or other I feel obliged to reshare this article… noting that after PPE firm linked to them received VIP lane contract MM/Husband/firm bought a jet & a boat & £3m in property for her children’.
Carol Vorderman launched into a tirade about the PPE scandal on ITV’s This Morning breakfast show, ending by turning to the camera and addressing the embattled lingerie tycoon by saying: ‘Sue me, Michelle’
Carol Vorderman and Michelle Mone in London on September 15, 2010
In a string of tweets, Miss Vorderman took further potshots at ‘baroness bra’, saying in one post: ‘For some reason or other I feel obliged to reshare this article… noting that after PPE firm linked to them received VIP lane contract MM/Husband/firm bought a jet & a boat & £3m in property for her children’
She wrote in another: ‘Barrowman (husband) will be on trial in Spain in May for criminal fraud. Last yr police raided their homes & offices, charges pending? It’s claimed that B & Mone illegally benefited from upwards of £58m from PPE Medpro through trusts. You get the gist…’.
A spokesperson for Baroness Mone declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.
Miss Vorderman earlier told This Morning viewers of her friendship with the baroness and that she ‘dropped her like a stone as soon as I realised what kind of person she was’.
But Baroness Mone, 51, who denies wrongdoing, hit back through a friend, who said in response to Miss Vorderman’s comments: ‘What are the reasons – a hunger for publicity, or maybe her coming to the end of her TV career?’ The friend added that Miss Vorderman’s outburst had been ‘outrageous’, saying: ‘I really don’t understand why Carol has started this attack.’
And the friend disputed claims by Miss Vorderman on Twitter that money from the Government PPE contracts funded the baroness’s business tycoon husband Doug Barrowman’s luxury lifestyle, saying: ‘Baroness Mone’s husband has owned super yachts and a jet for many years.’
2010: Carol and Michelle at the Marion Rose Ball in aid of Children with Leukaemia at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London
2011: The pair hug after spending time together in central London
Clearly, the days when the glamorous pair were pictured together at the Cheltenham races, in 2012, and socialising in central London, are long gone. It emerged last month that the girls’ nights out had come to an end ‘some time ago’, but only yesterday on This Morning was the full scale of the falling-out laid bare.
Speaking about recent scandals involving the purchase of unusable PPE for hundreds of millions, Miss Vorderman said: ‘I cannot talk about useless PPE without also talking about Michelle Mone who was brought into the House of Lords, as a baroness, by David Cameron. We know she has taken leave of absence without losing the Tory whip to start with, because she was actively involved, as it goes, with a company called PPE Medpro.’
She added: ‘Now Michelle Mone, I knew many years ago and then dropped her like a stone as soon as I realised what kind of person she was’, before turning to the camera to say: ‘Sue me, Michelle.’
This Morning host Alison Hammond said: ‘Carol, can I just say she’s not here to defend herself.’
But the former Countdown host pressed on, saying: ‘No, she’s not here to defend herself – but I’m repeating what has been said in the press and what has proven to be true.’
It was all so different in 2012 when Baroness Mone told how her friendship with Miss Vorderman had helped her get over her divorce from first husband Michael.
From leaving school in Glasgow with no qualifications to modelling and business deals: How ‘Baroness Bra’ made her millions
Lingerie tycoon Michelle Mone was born in 1971 and grew up in Glasgow’s East End, leaving school with no qualifications aged 15 before finding work as a model.
After running a sales and marketing team for the Labatt’s brewing firm, she decided to create a range of support bras after the idea came to her while wearing an uncomfortable bra during a dinner party.
Lady Mone founded MJM International with her then-husband Michael Mone in November 1996, and three years of research, design, and development resulted in the patented Ultimo bra.
Lingerie tycoon Michelle Mone (pictured centre) is under investigation by the House of Lords Commissioners for Standards for allegedly failing to declare an interest in PPE Medpro and lobbying for it to receive government contracts
The 51-year-old Conservative peer (pictured) – nicknamed Baroness Bra – has always insisted she neither had any involvement in PPE Medpro nor benefited financially from it
In August 1999, a month after having her third child, she launched Ultimo at the Selfridges department store in London, which sold the pre-launch estimate of six weeks of stock within 24 hours.
The business grew rapidly and in 2010 she earned an OBE from the Queen for her contribution to business.
But she sold 80 per cent of Ultimo in 2014, one year after announcing she had left the company following a breakdown in her marriage.
Lady Mone was nicknamed ‘Baroness Bra’ after being elevated to the House of Lords in 2015, where her official title is Baroness Mone of Mayfair.
To celebrate her 50th birthday, she decided to host five parties – one for each decade of her life – with her new husband billionaire tech tycoon Doug Barrowman, 55.
Baroness Mone founded the Ultimo brand, which earned her the nickname Baroness Bra
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