Michelle Mone, A Tory Colleague, Has Been Accused Of Sending A Racist And Nasty Message.
Michelle Mone, a Conservative peer, has been accused of sending a racist message to an Indian-origin man, who claims in an official complaint that she informed him he was "a waste of a guy's white skin."
The remark was purportedly used by a Tory member of the House of Lords in a WhatsApp message made in June 2019 amid a discussion over a deadly yacht disaster off the coast of Monaco.
The message was part of a series of WhatsApp interactions that were screenshotted and handed to the House of Lords Standards Commissioner as part of a complaint alleging that Lady Mone sent racist and abusive texts.
The complaint and screenshots of the discussions have been obtained by The Guardian, in which Mone appears to make insulting statements about the man's partner's mental health, referring to her as a "mental loony" and "nut case bird." Mone's texts were not sent in the course of her legislative duties, according to the commissioner, thus he was unable to investigate.
"Baroness Mone is 100 percent not a racist," a Tory peer's spokeswoman told the Guardian when contacted by the Guardian. In the last three years, Baroness Mone and her husband have built nearly 15 schools in Africa."
"I can't think of anyone better qualified to assist young entrepreneurs from low-income backgrounds in turning a good idea into a thriving business."
Mone's lawyers later issued a statement claiming that she had "no access" to the texts and had "no detailed memory of them."
"She will not comment on the texts until their validity has been established, but Baroness Mone categorically denies that she is a racist, a sexist, or that she has a lack of compassion for those who are really suffering from mental health issues."
The statement went on to say that it was "as illogical as it is inconceivable" that she "could or would have made such a comment, let alone with the slightest racist intent," because she had no idea at the time that the complainant "was anything other than white British, as his appearance is 100 percent white British."
According to the statement, it's "as illogical as it is inconceivable" that she "could or would have made such a comment or made it with the slightest racist intent" because she didn't know the complainant "was anything other than white British, as his appearance is 100 percent white, with a cut-glass English accent" at the time.
David Cameron appointed Mone to the House of Lords in 2015, a year after she sold an 80 percent ownership in her lingerie brand Ultimo. She was then chosen to lead a government entrepreneurship evaluation.