A Conservative peer has been reported for allegedly sending racist text messages to a man of Indian heritage.
Tory peer Michelle Mone was also accused of harassment and bullying in Whatsapp messages she reportedly sent after a crash between her yacht and another in Monaco in June 2019 where a crew member died.
In the correspondence, she allegedly referred to a man as a ‘waste of a man’s white skin’, according to the Guardian newspaper which has seen screenshots of the messages.
Baroness Mone is also said to have called his partner a ‘mental loony’ and ‘nut case’.
The House of Lords standards commissioner received a complaint about the alleged messages but will not be launching an investigation because they were not allegedly sent when Mone was working in her role as a peer.
Mone’s representative said she ‘is 100% not a racist’, had no ‘detailed memory’ of the Whatsapp messages and would not comment until they were authenticated.
The man who was allegedly sent the messages and his partner had been a guest on the other yacht when it collided with Mone and husband Douglas Barrowman’s boat.
The man, who described himself as brown-skinned and did not want to be named, allegedly got into a disagreement with Mone in the weeks after.
The Tory peer is said to have questioned whether his partner had suffered psychological damage due to the crash because she was apparently seen partying days after.
He reportedly responded by telling Mone his girlfriend was seriously traumatised and she should ‘back the f**k off’.
Mone then allegedly wrote: ‘OMG what a pile of crap!! You are talking to me, a smart, bright individual who doesn’t get taken in by your shit! In fact my bulls**t detector was on you from day 1. You & your mental loony of a girlfriend have been parting [sic] like mad! … You need to get a grip and have respect for a guy that was killed!!! Funny how your mad girlfriend has now deleted all the pictures, don’t worry I have screenshots of the dates and times. 48 hours after the guy was killed. Your [sic] a low life, a waste of a mans [sic] white skin so don’t give us your lies. Your [sic] a total disgrace.’
She added: ‘Now you deal with the police enquiries including your nut case bird.’
Mone’s representative told the Guardian: ‘Baroness Mone is 100% not a racist. Baroness Mone and her husband have built over 15 schools in Africa in the past three years.’
Her lawyer added she ‘very strongly denies that she is a racist, a sexist or that she has a lack of respect for those persons genuinely suffering with mental health difficulties’.
The statement said it was ‘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 the man’s ‘appearance is 100% white, with a cut-glass English accent’ and she didn’t realise he was anything other than white British.
The complainant, who reported the alleged incident in August, said the messages showed harassment and bullying from Mone.
House of Lords commissioner for standards Martin Jelley reportedly said he would not launch an investigation because the incident did not happen in her parliamentary duties and activities.
A House of Lords spokesperson said: “Where a complaint does not relate to a member’s parliamentary duties, it is not covered by the code or the remit of the commissioner for standards.”
Mone was told she would not be investigated.
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