BORIS Johnson is being urged to launch an official investigation into Michelle Mone following revelations about her role in controversial Covid contracts.

Despite repeatedly denying involvement, the baroness was among several Tory figures recently named in a report which claims they helped firms secure bumper public contracts through the UK Government’s “VIP lane”.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) recently confirmed that she referred Medpro at the start of the pandemic, when the Government was paying out huge fees without tender for PPE. The firm, which was created in May 2020, was administered by Knox House Trust (KHT), an Isle of Man corporate services firm run by Mone’s husband, Douglas Barrowman.

The company was ultimately awarded £203 million via two PPE contracts, having been fast-tracked through the “VIP” lane for businesses which had high-level connections to Conservative politicians and Downing Street.

Labour are now demanding an official probe into Mone’s dealings, the Guardian reports.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner called on the Prime Minister, or failing that the Cabinet Secretary, to publish all the information and correspondence relating to contracts handed out via the VIP scheme.

“There are serious questions that Baroness Mone must answer about whether she was telling the truth when she said that she played no role in the awarding of £200m of taxpayers’ money to PPE Medpro,” Rayner said.

“Boris Johnson and the Conservative party also have serious questions to answer about Baroness Mone’s position if she is found to have lied about her role in these contracts and the VIP fast-track lane.”

The National: Angela Rayner has slammed Conservative ministers (Image: PA).

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Last year, Mone and Medpro failed to declare that the baroness had referred the company to Lord Agnew, a Cabinet Office minister. The Tory peer’s lawyers repeatedly denied that she had any connection or association with the company, or any role in how it secured the contracts.

Following the referral, Agnew recommended that the firm be granted access to the “VIP” lane, where it was 10 times more likely to be given a public deal, according to the National Audit Office. There is no suggestion that Mone played any further role beyond the initial referral.

The revelations have led to questions over whether Mone has broken parliamentary rules. According to the so-called Nolan principles, established by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, parliamentarians are duty-bound to adhere to the principles of integrity, accountability, openness and honesty.

Rayner added: “If Baroness Mone wasn’t telling the truth about her role in these contracts, then she has clearly failed to uphold the Nolan principles and there are further questions to answer about whether she has breached the House of Lords code of conduct.

“Baroness Mone should refer herself to the House of Lords commissioners for investigation if she is confident she has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide.”

Mone’s representatives told the FT: “In relation to test and trace, she has advocated to government that all companies tendering for UK contracts be treated fairly and that a transparent process is adopted by DHSC in the award of contracts.”

In response to questions from the Guardian, Mone’s lawyers said: “Baroness Mone does not deny the simple act of referring PPE Medpro as a potential supplier of PPE to the office of Lord Agnew.”

They deny that her initial responses to questions about Medpro were untrue or misleading and said that her role in referring the company was a “They described Mone’s referral of the company to Agnew as a “very simple, solitary and brief step”.

The lawyers added that they denied Mone being connected, associated or having a role in PPE Medpro, in the “commercial meaning” of those words.

Mone’s referral was confirmed following a Freedom of Information request by the Good Law Project, which is challenging the legal basis upon which some government contracts were awarded during the early stages of the pandemic.

The documents show 10 Tory politicians, including Matt Hancock and Michael Gove, helped companies get access to the VIP lane.