A complainant, who accused Conservative member of the House of Lords Michelle Mone of being racist, has reportedly revealed his identity as Richard Lynton-Jones, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper cited Lynton-Jones, who has previously worked with Mone and her husband, as saying that he has “done nothing wrong apart from be [sic] a victim of racism”.
“My whole issue here is the fact that she was racist. She [Mone] was mentally abusing my then-girlfriend who is my ex-fiancee now because of everything that happened”, the 42-year-old added. He is believed to have a mother of Indian heritage and a white father.
Lady Mone's representatives, for their part, responded by saying that the 50-year-old ex-lingerie tycoon “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”.
This was echoed by the Tory peer’s lawyers, who told The Guardian that it was “illogical as it is inconceivable that she could or would have made such a comment or made it with the slightest racist intent” because she had no knowledge that Lynton-Jones “was anything other than white British, as his appearance is 100% white, with a cut-glass English accent”.
Mone herself referred to the matter on her Instagram account, noting, “Since when did calling out an entitled privileged white man constitute racism?”
This was preceded by the Tory peer arguing that “the accusations I have read today against me are full of contradictions”.
“I will set the record straight on this defamation before deciding on any legal action. What I do know is the disgrace this man made of the young boy’s life who was lost; partying with his girlfriend on Instagram stories days after the tragedy and not responding to the police”, she added.
'A Waste of a Man’s White Skin'
The remarks followed a report by The Guardian earlier this week that a man ostensibly of Indian heritage claimed that Mone had referred to him as “a waste of a man’s white skin” in a WhatsApp message about a Monaco yacht crash that killed a crew member in 2019.
The message was reportedly part of a series of exchanges between Mone and Lynton-Jones, screenshots of which were sent to the House of Lords commissioner for standards. The exchanges were linked to events in late May 2019, when Mone and her husband, businessman Douglas Barrowman, had been partying on their yacht with guests who had arrived on another vessel.
When the other yacht began to head back to shore in Monaco, it accidentally crashed into Barrowman’s vessel, killing one crew worker. Mone and Lynton-Jones, who at first described himself as a brown-skinned person, became caught up in a disagreement on WhatsApp in the weeks that followed.
Lynton-Jones, who had been a guest on the other boat, asserted that his partner had been seriously traumatised by the yacht crash. On 13 June 2019, Mone reportedly questioned whether the woman had indeed suffered psychologically after the accident, pointing out that the couple had been partying “only a few days after”.
According to the screenshots, the baroness wrote in the WhatsApp message:“OMG what a pile of cr*p!! … You & your mental loony of a girlfriend have been parting [sic] like mad! … 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”.
Lynton-Jones, for his part, made a complaint to Martin Jelley, the Lords commissioner for standards, in August 2021, alleging that Mone’s behaviour had amounted to bullying and harassment with use of messages that were “derogatory and racist” towards him and “abusive and derogatory” towards his partner.
The commissioner replied that he could not investigate because the Lords code of conduct applies only to members “in the course of their parliamentary duties and activities”.
Lynton-Jones then reportedly wrote to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, an advisory body to the UK prime minister, to deplore the fact that the Lords code “takes no notice of its members’ conduct outside of the house, however reprehensible”.
In the latest development, Liberal Democrat peer Lord Strasburger has, meanwhile, called for Mone’s resignation from the House of Lords due to Lynton-Jones' complaint, claiming in a statement that “there is something seriously wrong with the Lords code of conduct if it prevents the commissioner for standards from investigating alleged bad behaviour by a peer outside their parliamentary duties”.