Michelle Mone: Tory peer reported over alleged racist and abusive messages

Tory peer Michelle Mone has been accused of sending racist and abusive messages in a WhatsApp exchange.

A man of Indian heritage has claimed that Mone told him he was a "waste of a white man's skin".

The comment was allegedly made in June 2019, as the Tory member of the House of Lords had a disagreement with the man following a fatal yacht crash off the coast of Monaco.

Screenshots of the exchange have been sent to the House of Lords commissioner for standards as part of the complaint lodged against the Tory peer.

Mone is also alleged to have made remarks about the mental health of the man's partner, calling her a "mental looney" and a "nut case bird".

A representative of the Tory peer 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 lawyers later provided another statement in which they said Mone had “no access” to the messages and no “detailed memory of them”.

“She is not prepared to comment on the messages unless and until their authenticity has been confirmed but Baroness Mone, in any event, 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".