Scottish businesswoman Michelle Mone has yet to make her maiden speech in the House of Lords despite being a peer for four months.
She is one of only Scottish peers enobled last year who have yet to make their maiden speech.
It was reported in today's Scotland on Sunday that Baroness Mone, who founed underwear firm Ultimo, blamed her silence on losing her voice.
Her spokesman was reported to have said she would make her first contribution 'as soon as she gets her voice back'.
However, following publication of this story by The Herald and our sister paper The Evening Times, Baroness Mone tweeted to say: "Can you please stop with your lies! I haven't lost my voice & I'm waiting on my slot. I've been working on Gov review"
Can you please stop with your lies!I haven't lost my voice&I'm waiting on my slot.I've been working on Gov review https://t.co/51WIcXpOPA
— Lady Mone (@MichelleMone) February 7, 2016
Although she is still to make her maiden speech, Mone has taken part in votes at the House of Lords including voting in favour of cuts to tax credits.
Mone has been criticised for not yet making a speech by Scottish Labour business spokesman Lewis Macdonald, who says she has missed an opportunity to speak up for small business owners.
He said: "Michelle Mone being shy and retiring in the House of Lords must come as a big surprise and it's disappointing that she appears to see her role as being to just turn up and vote for the UK government's policies.
"There will be many small business people out there disappointed to learn that someone who they thought was a stong-minded entrepreneur has not been using the seat they were given in the House of Lords to speak up for them."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel