How to Watch UK TV Channels Outside of the UK? I'll give you a simple trick that will explain how to watch UK TV channels live abroad. Now you can watch all of your favorite UK TV programmes while you are away from home without VPN with 1Fakt.com
Michelle Mone's bête noire Carol Vorderman has taken a savage swipe at the disgraced peer who is under severe pressure to pay back £122million she made on useless PPE during the pandemic.
The pair used to be close friends but their relationship collapsed and turned into arguably Britain's bitterest celebrity feud.
Former Countdown star Carol, a Labour supporter, has been vocal in criticising the Tory peer over allegations relating to government PPE contracts during Covid.
And after Mone's crushing defeat in the High Court yesterday, Ms Vorderman has been quick to put the boot in, declaring: 'Yes at last'.
Calling for her former friend to be kicked out of the House of Lords, she said: 'The story is far from over. I’m so glad I fought against PPE corruption but the fight goes on'.
Her Instagram post was celebrated by friends including Alan Carr, Mary Portas and Russell T Davies.
Carol added that she had done 'all I could' to help journalists investigating the PPE scandal that has shamed Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman.
'Finally the company Mone put forward to the Tory VIP PPE LANE has been found to owe US £122million by supplying unusable and non sterile gowns', she said.
'For a number of years some brilliant journalists and organisations have fought to keep this disgraceful Michelle Mone story in the headlines. I did all I could to help', she said.
'For that action I was threatened, lied about, was sacked from my BBC radio job as I refused to back down criticising her and the Tories.
'You see I knew Mone for about a year around 2011/12 time and realised that there was very little she wouldn’t lie about so I quietly dropped her at that time.'
Carol's public attack on Michelle on This Morning in 2023 put a rocket under the feud, prompting a barrage of counterclaims from Michelle's camp.
'On ITV This Morning I said she was a liar , I turned to camera and said “Sue Me Michelle” long before she admitted it. Guess what? She didn’t sue me', Ms Vorderman said today.
From lively nights out in London to hospitality jaunts at Cheltenham - there was a time when Michelle Mone and Carol Vorderman seemed inseparable.
And their public comments were certainly affectionate, with Michelle calling the former Countdown host her 'good friend' whose 'fun' company helped her get over her divorce.
But the pair fell out 'some time ago', insiders say, before Carol, 64, began fiercely criticising the Tory peer over allegations relating to government PPE contracts during Covid.
Carol used her appearance on This Morning to share details on the scandal currently engulfing Michelle, 53, who she barracked in a lengthy monologue before being interrupted by host Alison Hammond.
Addressing viewers, she said: 'I cannot talk about useless PPE without also talking about Michelle Mone who was brought into the House of Lords, as a baroness, by David Cameron.
'We know she has taken leave of absence without losing the Tory whip to start with because she was actively involved, as it goes, with a company called PPE Medpro.'
Carol acknowledged she'd once been friends with Michelle, before adding: 'Now Michelle Mone, I knew, many years ago and then dropped her like a stone as soon as I realised what kind of person she was.'
She then turned to look at the camera directly and held both hands up as she said: 'Sue me, Michelle.'
The intervention infuriated the peer's camp, with a source close to her branding the broadcaster 'publicity hungry' and calling the comments 'outrageous'.
'I really don't understand why Carol has started this attack,' the source told the Daily Mail.
The ally also hit back at Carol's claims on Twitter that Michelle's husband, Doug Barrowman, paid for a super yacht and a private jet using money from government PPE contracts.
'Baroness Mone's husband has owned superyachts and a jet for many years. What are the reasons – a hunger for publicity, or maybe her coming to the end of her TV career?'
What is still unclear is who first ended the friendship, with both giving contesting narratives.
And now Mone has been humiliated by the High Court.
'Baroness Bra', ennobled by David Cameron in 2015, was dubbed a 'big gun' in the deal that saw the Department of Health buy 25 million sterile surgical gowns for the NHS at the start of the pandemic.
The judge ruled the Chinese-made gowns, sought in desperation by the Government as the world went into lockdown, were faulty and that PPE Medpro, the firm linked to Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman, should pay back the full £122million value of the contract.
On the eve of the judgement, however, Baroness Mone, 53, implied that PPE Medpro would be unable to pay, with 'little funds to make a settlement by itself', the firm effectively folding with just £660,000 in assets.
Yet Mone and her husband reportedly reaped profits of £60m-plus from Government PPE contracts totalling £200m during the Pandemic, having initially denied they were even involved in PPE Medpro.
And she has previously been pictured in a swimsuit on her private yacht, the Lady M, alongside her boastful caption 'Business isn't easy. But it is rewarding.'
The couple are both subject to an ongoing criminal investigation over allegations of 'pandemic profiteering', which they deny.
She is under scrutiny in the House of Lords for personally pushing PPE Medpro into the 'VIP lane' for Covid contracts without revealing her personal interest.
Wednesday night brought a chorus of calls for all the taxpayers' cash wasted on Mone's useless gowns to be repaid.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, under pressure to balance Britain's books ahead of a looming Budget, said: 'We want our money back. We are getting our money back.'
Health secretary Wes Streeting and his Health minister Stephen Kinnock all demanded the £122million be paid back - while the Chancellor joined Covid 19 victims' families in calling for Baroness Mone to be kicked out of the Lords after she 'ripped off taxpayers'.
Wednesday's High Court judgement by Mrs Justice Cockerill said Mone had referred PPE Medpro to the Government via the so-called 'VIP lane' for personal protective equipment providers on the very day the company was created in May 2020.
Soon, amid fears of a huge Covid death toll, worried civil servants reached an agreement - with Baroness Mone, the court heard, brought in as the company's 'big gun' to get the deal over the line - to provide 25 million surgical gowns, despite it having no PPE experience.
But after delivery, civil servants soon decided they were faulty, with no proof they reached required sterility standards.
Mrs Justice Cockerill on Wednesday agreed, saying that because the 25 million gowns supplied for 'a few pence less than £122m' did not meet required sterility standards.
'Medpro was in breach of contract,' the judgement read.
'The Department of Health and Social Care can recover the full cost of the gowns.'
Medpro claimed to have sterilised the gowns using radiation - but could not prove it had done so as required.
No more than one in a million gowns was allowed to be unsterile - but when 140 of the Mone gowns were tested for sterility, an astonishing 103 failed.
Among contaminants was an organism only discovered in 2017 and originating from a trench more than five miles beneath the surface of the Pacific ocean.
Another contaminant was previously documented in a blood sample in Sweden, and a third was first identified in the Mojave desert in California.
Medpro's claim that the gowns could have been put to other uses, or sold, was dismissed, as there was no evidence of any demand for 25 million non-sterile gowns.
A bid by the DHSC to recoup £8million spent on storing the useless kit was denied.
PPE Medpro is supposed to repay all £122million by 4pm on October 15. On Wednesday night a spokesman for Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman, 60, had not responded to requests for comment, or confirmed any plans for an appeal.
But furious ministers were in no doubt the money must be repaid.
Ms Reeves responded to a claim by Baroness Mone that the court verdict was an 'establishment win' by saying: 'The former Conservative peer Baroness Mone complaining about the establishment when she got this contract through the previous Government's VIP fast lane is a little bit rich.
'This is an independent decision from the High Court, and I'm pleased with their decision, because they should never have got their hands on this money.
'During the pandemic, people made huge sacrifices, separated from their families and loved ones, and yet, at the same time, people like Michelle Mone and her company, her husband's company, profited on the back of that misery.
'I'm pleased that now the High Court have made that decision we can get that money back.'
Responding to the baroness's claim that the Government had a vendetta against her, Ms Reeves had told the Labour party conference earlier this week: 'Too right, we do.'
Health Secretary Mr Streeting said: 'PPE Medpro put NHS staff and patients in danger with substandard kit whilst lining their own pockets with taxpayers' money at a time of national crisis.
'We're coming after every penny owed to our NHS.'
And junior health minister Mr Kinnock said: '£122million needs to be paid back, and that's what's going to happen. We have now got the full force of the law behind us.'
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK campaign group added: 'Greed and corruption during the pandemic have cost lives, and everyone responsible must be held accountable.
'Baroness Mone should have no role in making and passing the laws we all live under. Her title must be revoked immediately.'
Peerages can only be removed by an act of Parliament - although Baroness Mone could resign. There was no sign of that on Wednesday night.
Baroness Mone, suggesting the Government wanted to divert attention from £10billion wasted on unusable PPE in total, said: 'Today's judgment against PPE Medpro is shocking but all too predictable.
'It is nothing less than an establishment win for the Government in a case that was too big for them to lose.'
Mr Barrowman continued to insist his faulty gowns were sterile, adding: 'This judgment is a whitewash of the facts. The outcome was always certain for the DHSC and the Government.'
A court order saw £75million of the couple's assets frozen, lest they be criminally convicted over PPE profiteering.
Assets they are barred from selling include their £25million Ballakew estate residence on the tax haven Isle of Man, multiple accounts at Coutts and another private bank, plus Goldman Sachs, and ten £1million properties in Glasgow.
They have however been able to sell a six-bed Belgravia townhouse for £19million - and the 130ft, £6million Lady M yacht remains theirs to play with.
From leaving school in Glasgow with no qualifications to modelling and business deals: How 'Baroness Bra' made her millions
Lingerie tycoon Michelle Mone was born in 1971 and grew up in Glasgow's East End, leaving school with no qualifications aged 15 before finding work as a model.
After running a sales and marketing team for the Labatt's brewing firm, she decided to create a range of support bras after the idea came to her while wearing an uncomfortable bra during a dinner party.
Lady Mone founded MJM International with her then-husband Michael Mone in November 1996, and three years of research, design, and development resulted in the patented Ultimo bra.
In August 1999, a month after having her third child, she launched Ultimo at the Selfridges department store in London, which sold the pre-launch estimate of six weeks of stock within 24 hours.
The business grew rapidly and in 2010 she earned an OBE from the Queen for her contribution to business.
But she sold 80 per cent of Ultimo in 2014, one year after announcing she had left the company following a breakdown in her marriage.
Lady Mone was nicknamed 'Baroness Bra' after being elevated to the House of Lords in 2015, where her official title is Baroness Mone of Mayfair.
To celebrate her 50th birthday, she decided to host five parties - one for each decade of her life – with her new husband billionaire tech tycoon Doug Barrowman, 60.