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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Abbi Garton-Crosbie

Humza Yousaf calls for Lords to be scrapped after Michelle Mone interview

FIRST Minister Humza Yousaf has said the "undemocratic" House of Lords should be scrapped after Michelle Mone admitted she lied about her involvement in a "VIP lane" PPE contact.

The Tory peer, who was ennobled by David Cameron in 2015, revealed that she is set to benefit from the profits made by PPE Medpro during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a BBC interview, Mone said she didn't believe herself or her husband Doug Barrowman has a "case to answer" over the scandal, claiming the only mistake she made was lying to the press about her involvement. 

After the interview aired on Sunday morning, Yousaf wrote on Twitter/X: "The unelected House of Lords should be scrapped.

"Not only is it undemocratic, handing Peerages to party donors stinks to the high heavens.

"Abolish it."

It comes as Deputy First Minister Shona Robison told BBC Scotland's Sunday Show said Mone's interview was "astonishing" and that she had made "quite an admission".

Robison (above) added that there were several questions for the UK Government over the row.

The DFM said: “I think there are not just questions for Michelle Mone, but I think there are questions for UK Government ministers.

“What they knew and when. And I think we need to hear from them absolute clarity of everything that was known.

“All of the interactions, what was said, what was promised, what was known. I think we need to have all of that laid out.”

Robison said people would be “astonished” at the revelations around £60 million of profit being made in the pandemic PPE deal linked to Baroness Mone, saying it is an “eye-watering figure”.

Elsewhere, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting questioned Mone's thinking behind deciding to do the interview. 

“I don’t know who thought it was a good idea for her to do that interview, but I don’t think anyone watching will be shedding any tears," he told the BBC. 

He was not the only one to question why Mone thought it was a good idea to agree to the interview in the first place. 

And, actor Brian Cox, who joined the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg panel to give his reaction to the interview, said it was "obscene" to profit from the pandemic.

We previously told how there were calls for reforms to the Lords after Rishi Sunak ennobled David Cameron so that he could take on the job of Foreign Secretary, despite not being elected.

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