<\/p>\n
Carol Vorderman has said she has dropped all her bad friends in a thinly veiled jab at Baroness Mone, an ex-confidant.<\/p>\n
The former Countdown presenter<\/a> said she had taken up offers from friends to go on a flurry of holidays after suffering an undisclosed health scare last year.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Sunday Mirror<\/a>, the 64-year-old said: \u201cI\u2019ve had lots of mini-breaks and holidays with friends. I\u2019ve been back to horse racing, I\u2019ve travelled to the States, to France, to everywhere!<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had messages to say, \u2018Oh come and stay in our villa\u2019, or \u2018Come and visit us on our boat\u2019. It\u2019s lovely to be so loved.\u201d<\/p>\n She said it had been wonderful to rekindle friendships, adding: \u201cI think I\u2019ve managed to drop all the bad ones.\u201d<\/p>\n Vorderman has made a series of scathing attacks on Lady Mone, her former friend, since accusations emerged about the latter profiting from personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, PPE Medpro, which is owned by a consortium led by Doug Barrowman, the lingerie entrepreneur\u2019s husband, was found to have breached a government contract and was ordered to pay the Department of Health and Social Care \u00a3122m.<\/p>\n The company was awarded contracts worth \u00a3200m after its bid was fast-tracked by Lady Mone<\/a> through a so-called VIP lane, but the government claimed surgical gowns provided by the company were defective.<\/p>\n Lady Mone has accused successive governments of scapegoating her to distract from mismanagement of PPE procurement during the pandemic.<\/p>\n Vorderman was once close with Lady Mone, who once credited the presenter with helping her through her divorce from her first husband.<\/p>\n But appearing on This Morning in Jan 2023, Vorderman said: \u201cI cannot talk about useless PPE without also talking about Michelle Mone<\/a> who was brought into the House of Lords, as a baroness, by David Cameron.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n \u201cNow 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,\u201d before staring down the camera and saying: \u201cSue me, Michelle.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2018Cannot talk about useless PPE without talking about Michelle Mone\u2019<\/h2>\n