I’M NOT DODGY.. I’M A BARONESS
Tory peer Mone is accused of using the Beeb to plug £250m Dubai flats
She has shamefully abused her position. It is a grubby spectacle LABOUR MP JOHN MANN ON PEER’S PROPERTY PLUG
TORY peer Baroness Mone was yesterday accused of abusing her position by using the BBC to plug her boyfriend’s £250million Dubai property development.
The bra tycoon, 45, urged Breakfast viewers to snap up flats using unregulated crypto-currency Bitcoin, which is popular with organised criminals.
And when fears were raised, she said: “I wouldn’t be involved in anything – I’m a Baroness in the House of Lords – if anything was dodgy.”
She twice referred to the website for the Aston Plaza project by Doug Barrowman – who runs a firm accused of tax avoidance schemes – and also plugged her new interiors business.
GRUBBY
Sir Alistair Graham, ex-chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said it was “monstrously inappropriate”, adding: “There are rules against bringing the Lords into disrepute and I would have thought this goes jolly close.”
The tycoon was invited on the BBC as part of a season on top businesswomen’s careers. Labour’s John Mann said: “Baroness Mone has shamelessly abused her position. It is a grubby spectacle.”
A spokesman for the Baroness said: “Michelle Mone believes the Dubai development offers a great opportunity to purchase an apartment not only with all major currencies but for the first time in crypto-currency.”
Meanwhile, Mr Barrowman’s Isle of Man-based payroll firm AML is to fight a HMRC ruling that could bankrupt some clients. A spokesman said schemes were “compliant with UK law” at the time and AML halted them when the law changed in 2011.
PUPILS whose school breakfast clubs are forced to shut down due to spending cuts will have their prospects blighted for life.
Hungry kids simply cannot pay attention as well as those who have been properly fed, so they will almost inevitably fall behind.
Their education will suffer and their potential will be wasted. Such neglect is criminal.
Teachers warned of the threats to breakfast clubs on the very day we saw Prince George start at his plus £6,000-a-term private school. Austerity for the many and privilege for a few never looked more unfair.
Every child, not just a royal, should enjoy a decent chance and the best start in life. It is utterly deplorable that Theresa May’s Tory Government is making life harder for working families by squeezing state school budgets.
Kids from poorer families will be hit hardest. Under the Tories every child doesn’t matter.