By Ali Lyon
Michelle Mone has conceded that she is in line to benefit from the sale of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the UK government during the pandemic by a company run by her husband, Doug Barrowman.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Baroness Mone, who had previously denied being connected to PPE Medpro, the company in question, said: “I regret and am sorry for not saying straight out: ‘Yes, I am involved’.”
But Mone went on to claim that beyond lying to the press, something which she insisted “is not a crime”, she “couldn’t see what [her and her husband] had done wrong”.
During the pandemic, PPE Medpro received over £200m from the government to provide PPE to NHS workers, via a “VIP lane” introduced by the government to help it determine its preferred suppliers from the many offers it received.
Barrowman was involved in the day-to-day running of the company, while Baroness Mone brought the firm’s bids for contracts to the attention of people in government, something which Mone claimed the government had “asked her to do”.
Mone’s latest tale of events is markedly different from what the couple had previously claimed to be the case. Until November 2022 the pair had denied, via their lawyers, any financial connection PPE Medpro, when a leak of HSBC documents suggested Barrowman received £65m of the company’s profits.
Now, not only has Barrowman conceded to establishing PPE Medpro with three partners, but Baroness Mone, a former Conservative peer and lingerie tycoon, has said that some of the company’s profits are in a financial trust of which she and her children are beneficiaries.
PPE Medpro is currently defending legal action from the government for £122m plus costs for a “breach of contract and unjust enrichment”.
There is also a separate criminal investigation being carried out by the National Crime Agency.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told the same programme: “There were proper checks undertaken but, as with any large allocation of government funds for large scale government procurement, there are going to be issues that arise subsequently.”
He added: “If there is fraud, the government will crack down on it.”
An NCA spokesman said: “The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.”
The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment.
