Mone claims government ‘scapegoating’ her over PPE – Daily Business

Baroness Mone claims she is being made a “scapegoat” for the PPE scandal after it emerged her husband’s company is on the brink of collapse.

The Tory peer and former lingerie entrepreneur also said the government had turned down multi-million-pound offers to settle a High Court legal battle with the company.

A hearing was told in June that she was “active” in discussions that led to the Department of Health paying £122 million to PPE Medpro for medical equipment during the pandemic that was allegedly unsuitable.

The lingerie entrepreneur initiated discussions with the department for the company to supply 25 million surgical gowns made in China that turned out not to be sterile, the court heard.

Mone, 53, who is on leave of absence from the House of Lords, initially denied benefiting from the deal to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) but, with her husband, Douglas Barrowman, was later reported to have received £65 million.

An application to appoint administrators to take over the running of PPE Medpro was filed on Tuesday, days after the company announced it had net assets of £666,025.

Mrs Justice Cockerill will give a judgment in the government’s case this morning. If the company loses, government lawyers are likely to consider pursuing Mone and her husband for the compensation.

Court records show that on Tuesday PPE Medpro filed a “notice of appointment to appoint an administrator”.

Mone posted a message on X on Tuesday that read: “For the past seven months, I have stayed silent.

“But the truth is, I have endured five years of pure torture, relentless press and media attacks, every single day, without responding. Enough is enough. It is time for the public to know the truth.

“This case was never about gowns or money. It has always been about politics and blame-shifting, a way to cover up the government’s disastrous £10 billion PPE write-off. Doug and I have been deliberately scapegoated and vilified in an orchestrated campaign designed to distract from catastrophic mismanagement of PPE procurement.

“The government decided to make us the poster couple for the PPE scandal, a convenient distraction to take the blame off them. Meanwhile, the public can see with their own eyes images of PPE worth billions dumped in fields and warehouses across the country.”

Mone claimed that recent television documentaries had edited her interviews to “fit a predetermined narrative”.

At the Labour party conference on Tuesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves joked that the government did have a vendetta against Baroness Michelle Mone.

She told a fringe event at Labour’s party conference: “Michelle Mone, remember her, she’s come out today and said that the government has got a vendetta against her. Too right we do.”

The National Crime Agency is investigating the couple and searched their homes and other properties in 2022. The Crown Prosecution Service later obtained a court order freezing £75 million of their assets. Mone and Barrowman deny wrongdoing.

PPE Medro is a “consortium” of businesspeople, including Barrowman. It denied breaching its contractual obligations over the supply of the surgical gowns.

Glasgow-born Mone made her breakthrough as the creator of Ultimo, her lingerie company, and she was elevated to the Lords by former PM David Cameron in 2015 who believed she could apply some of her entrepreneurial experience. She lost the Tory whip in 2022 and now sits as an independent peer.

Leaked documents that year reportedly showed that at least £65 million of PPE Medpro profits were paid to Barrowman’s accounts. He allegedly transferred £29 million to an offshore trust whose beneficiaries were Mone and her three adult children.

Mone admitted in an interview with the BBC that she had lied to the media when she denied she had benefited from the contracts.

In accounts filed last week it was revealed that PPE Medpro had spent £4.2 million on legal costs fighting the government’s claim.

The company issued a statement on Tuesday saying that in December 2022, before the government filed its compensation claim, it sought to settle the dispute with an offer to replace all 25 million gowns on a “no-fault basis”.

It later offered £23 million to settle the case. The statement added: “It is now clear that PPE Medpro has been singled out and targeted by the government who have never wanted to reach a financial settlement.”