TORY peer Michelle Mone has paid out more than £50,000 to settle a lawsuit over racism claims, reports say.
The Conservative baroness settled the High Court claim of racial abuse after she allegedly called a man of Indian heritage a “waste of a white man's skin”.
Mone’s lawyers said she had believed that Richard Lynton-Jones was “100 per cent white” when she made the comment over WhatsApp message in 2019.
An investigation by the Metropolitan Police, launched in 2021, was dropped, but Lynton-Jones sued for libel. He was seeking around £200,000 in aggravated damages, according to the Daily Mail.
The disagreement reportedly stemmed from a fatal yacht collision in 2019. Lynton-Jones – whose mother is said to be of Indian heritage – said the incident had traumatised his partner.
In a reply first reported by the Guardian in December last year, Mone is alleged to have said: “Your a low life, a waste of a mans white skin so don’t give us your lies. Your a total disgrace.”
Lynton-Jones said: “I've done nothing wrong apart from be a victim of racism. Racism has no place in this society, let alone for a member of the House of Lords. That's disgusting.”
A spokesperson for Mone denied the baroness was racist. They said: “Both parties have settled their differences on a no fault or damages basis in relation to the alleged racist claim and the matter is now concluded.”
The Conservative peer is facing further scrutiny amid reports that her husband has a financial interest in a firm which won £200 million in public Covid contracts after she recommended it to the UK Government through its illegal “VIP lane”.
Bringing up the awarding of the contracts in Westminster, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “MedPro, a company linked to Baroness Mone, was handed hundreds of millions of pounds in Government contracts during the pandemic.
“It has now been reported it has been raided by the police as well as her home.
“There are serious questions about the due diligence that was performed on this company, so can the Leader of the House let us know what evidence they hold and why they are refusing to give a single sheet of it out into the public domain?
“What have you got to hide?”
