MICHELLE Mone is facing further questions over her suitability to become the UK Government’s start-up czar, after she was accused of exploiting people by selling "useless" slimming pills.

The entrepreneur helped establish the business TrimSecrets, which sells slimming tablets alongside diet and exercise advice, in 2006.

Ms Mone said TrimSecrets, set up with figures including late homeopathy expert Jan de Vries, helped her shed more than six stone in 18 months.

However, nutrition experts said that nothing in the supplements had been scientifically proven to help with weight loss, and accused the company of attempting to cash in on “magic” slimming solutions that do not work.

It comes as David Cameron stood by his decision to appoint Ms Mone to lead a review into driving entrepreneurship in deprived areas. The Prime Minister’s “view has not changed” despite a backlash from business figures, Downing Street said.

Accounts filed by TrimSecrets show that the firm made a loss in the last four years for which accounts are available.

A representative for Ms Mone said she had sold the company earlier this year, however it remained listed as part of her portfolio on her website last night. It stated that the capsules will “provide essential minerals and nutrients to promote optimal health, reduce appetite and increase the metabolism”.

Professor Mike Lean, chairman of Human Nutrition at the University of Glasgow, said: “There is nothing in the ingredients of these pills which would have any effect on people’s weight.

“If people have lost weight while taking TrimSecrets pills, it is because they have been eating less calories than they are using up. I take a very dim view of people taking advantage of others.”

Aisling Pigott, a spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association, said that from a scientific perspective, TrimSecrets amounted to “snake oil”. She also criticised the firm for using “irresponsible” marketing tactics.

Former Big Brother contestant Chanelle Hayes posed in a bikini last year alongside a life-sized cardboard cut-out of herself overweight, crediting TrimSecrets with her slimmer figure. It attracted widespread media attention.

She said a calorie restricted diet and regular exercise which form part of TrimSecrets' plan would be responsible for any weight loss, rather than the capsules which are sold for £15 for two weeks’ supply.

She added: “The diet and the exercise is the secret, there isn’t a chance the pills will help in any way. There are questions about ethics behind the company. If she [Ms Mone] is to be seen as a public figure, how ethical is it to be selling a magic answer to weight loss when we know it’s not that simple?”

A spokesman for Michelle Mone said TrimSecrets had never been marketed as a diet pill and complied with all legislation. Responding to the financial results, he said that since Ms Mone acquired her husband’s shares in 2013 following their split, she had not had the time to dedicate to the business due to “her entrepreneurial ventures and other investments”.

He added: “Michelle sold her entire shareholding in TrimSecrets in a private sale earlier this year. Since that time she has had no involvement with the company.

“The company’s products were widely recognised as being an effective herbal supplement which proved of benefit to thousands of people.”

A spokesman for TrimSecrets said the product had been developed over five years by the "late, great award-winning naturopath Professor Jan De Vries".

He added: "His name is highly regarded around the world because of the people whose lives he changed, when modern medicine had failed them."

The spokesman said a trial in 2013 had found that participants lost over 30 stone between them over three months using the pills and following the slimming plan.

He said TrimSecrets was "FDA certified and approved herbal aid" with a "clinically proven, all natural ingredient Sinetrol Xpur". This, he said, "helps to increase the metabolism and suppress appetite - supported by a blend of essential vitamins and minerals that support the body whilst undergoing a weight-loss programme".