Tory peer and ex-bra tycoon Michelle Mone has been accused of lying to defend herself in a racism row in which she reportedly told a half-Indian man he was a ‘waste of a man’s white skin’.
The entrepreneur, dubbed ‘Baroness Bra’, has denied being a racist, insisting that she thought the man, Richard Lynton-Jones, a former friend, was ‘100 per cent white British’.
But Mr Lynton Jones, 42, a private banker who lives in Monaco, has now expressed astonishment at her claims – and insists she not only knew of his Indian heritage but had even touched metal plates implanted in his face following a violent racist attack.
‘She has lied through her back teeth,’ he told The Mail on Sunday last night. ‘She knows very clearly I’m half-Indian. She knew I was racially attacked in Majorca in 2007 – I was beaten to a pulp.
Tory peer and ex-bra tycoon Michelle Mone (pictured) has been accused of lying to defend herself in a racism row in which she reportedly told a half-Indian man he was a ‘waste of a man’s white skin’
‘I’m not some random acquaintance – I was good friends with her husband, Doug Barrowman. We’d met probably 50 times and I’ve been to their home on the Isle of Man.’
Mone’s lawyers say the Baroness believed Mr Lynton-Jones had ‘no trace whatsoever of non-white colouring or any features’ that would not suggest he was white.
But family photographs supplied to this newspaper ‘clearly’ demonstrate his heritage, he says.
Lynton-Jones is the son of an English father, but his Indian grandparents settled in Britain after World War II. He has filed a complaint to the House of Lords commissioner of standards and the Met Police.
Following a yacht collision off Monaco in June 2019, the message was received. A deckhand on Mone and Barrowman’s yacht, 27-year-old Jake Feldwhere, was killed when another boat carrying friends, including Mr Lynton-Jones and his then-fiancee, hit the bow.
Mr Lynton-Jones says Mone wrongly believed he was piloting the second boat, and accused him and his partner of ‘partying’ after the crash. He says both statements are false.
But Mr Lynton Jones (pictured), 42, a private banker who lives in Monaco, has now expressed astonishment at her claims – and insists she not only knew of his Indian heritage but had even touched metal plates implanted in his face following a violent racist attack
Screenshots appear to show the Baroness describing Mr Lynton-Jones as ‘a low life, a waste of a mans white skin’ [sic] and adds his fiancee was a ‘mental loony’ and a ‘nut case bird’.
According to the commissioner, he cannot investigate the complaints because they were not received in the course her duties as a parliamentary officer.
The messages are being investigated by police.
Mone’s representatives said she ‘strongly denies she is a racist, a sexist or has a lack of respect for those persons genuinely suffering with mental health difficulties’.