Baroness Mone admits she stands to benefit from PPE contract
Baroness Michelle Mone has admitted she stands to benefit from a contract between the government and PPE firm Medpro.
The Conservative peer and Ultimo bra tycoon has previously conceded she made an "error" in publicly denying her links to the firm, which was awarded huge contracts during the pandemic and is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
PPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth more than £200m to supply personal protective equipment after she recommended it to ministers.
Read more:
Who is Michelle Mone and what is the PPE controversy?
In an appearance on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Baroness Mone admitted she is a beneficiary of her husband Doug Barrowman's financial trusts, which hold around £60m of profit from the deal, but said the couple have been made "scapegoats" for the government's wider failings over PPE.
Baroness Mone has repeatedly denied she profited from the deal, which she first discussed with government ministers including Michael Gove.
But Baroness Mone told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "If one day, if God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children, so yes, of course."
Baroness Mone said she did not mean to fool anyone, despite admitting the couple misled the press about their involvement.
"I did make an error in saying to the press that I wasn't involved," she said
"Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I wasn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, and I regret and I'm sorry for not saying straight out, yes, I am involved."
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Deputy prime minister disputes Lady Mone's claims
Responding to Baroness Mone's claims the government was at fault, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: "Well, I don't accept that.
"What I would say is there is an ongoing investigation both by the National Crime Agency, and indeed the Department of Health is suing the company concerned in civil litigation.
"So, there is a limit to what I can say, but I don't recognise that characterisation."
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has since issued breach of contract proceedings over the 2020 deal on the supply of gowns - million supplied by the company were never used by health services.
The couple insists the gowns were supplied in accordance with the contract.
Baroness Mone, who was interviewed alongside her husband, recently told a YouTube documentary - funded by PPE Medpro - they both would be cleared and argued they have "done nothing wrong".
But the defence has received short shrift from other companies who say they missed out on contracts during the pandemic.
Jenny Holloway told Sky News her UK-based firm, Fashion Enter, were "ready for action" when the call came, turning their business from one producing fashion garments to focusing on PPE.
But the company was only issued with two contracts for 20,000 gowns, and ended up making 35 people redundant while PPE MedPro were making profits.
She said: "To read that PPE MedPro had a £203m contract and so much went into landfill… how can that happen?
"How can that happen that you have got garment manufacturers here in the UK that bent over backwards, that undertook innovative new product development that would have saved the money, and we were just ignored?
"I think about the staff I have lost. Just 10% of that contract, £2m of that £203m, if we had just had that, just one of those women would have been put into redundancy. It's a disgrace."
Ms Holloway added: "This is greed, it is selfishness, it is unacceptable, and surely those profits should have to go back into the NHS."
A spokesman for Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman said: "PPE Medpro was just one of a very large number of companies that supplied PPE and made a profit in the pandemic.
"Crucially, it is well documented that their competitive prices saved the taxpayer £100m in comparison to rival suppliers.
"Whilst Baroness Mone has now admitted she made a mistake in her dealings with the media, she was always honest about her involvement with the Cabinet office, Health department and the NHS.
"Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman dispute the claims by DSHC that their product was not to specification, and intend to clear their name."
Timeline of the PPE Medpro row
March 2020
The UK government announces its first COVID pandemic lockdown and starts trying to source more PPE supplies due to rocketing demand.
May 2020
Baroness Mone emails Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and Tory peer Lord Agnew, saying she could use her contacts in Hong Kong to get more PPE to the UK, and her offer is added to the so-called "VIP lane".
Days later, the company PPE MedPro is incorporated as a company - though her husband, Doug Barrowman, is not named.
The company is then awarded its first contract with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for £80.85m for the supply of 210 million face masks.
June 2020
PPE MedPro is awarded its second contact by the DHSC - this time for £122m for 25 million sterile surgical gowns
November 2020
Baroness Mone's lawyers say she is "not connected in anyway with PPE MedPro", while Mr Barrowman's legal representatives said he "never had any role or function" in the firm.
December 2020
The DHSC reveals the gowns it had purchased from PPE MedPro had "not been distributed to the frontline" as questions are raised by sources to The Guardian newspaper over whether they are fit for use.
Lawyers representing Baroness Mone and her husband continue to deny their involvement, and tell journalists any suggestion of an association would be "inaccurate", "misleading" and "defamatory".
November 2021
A Freedom of Information request reveals Baroness Mone referred the company to the government through Mr Gove and Lord Agnew, which later was processed through the VIP lane.
January 2022
The Guardian reports leaked files that suggest Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman were involved in the company after she had made the referral.
The article alleges the pair were both informed of commercial arrangements, including over WhatsApp.
The House of Lords' standards commissioner launches an investigation into whether Baroness Mone breached the code of conduct by failing to register her interest in PPE MedPro and by lobbying the government on its behalf.
Baroness Mone refutes all the allegations against her.
April 2022
The National Crime Agency opens its own investigation into PPE MedPro.
November 2022
Further documents leaked to The Guardian reveal Baroness Mone and her children would receive £29m of the profits from the firm, placed into a trust that they would be the beneficiaries of.
December 2022
The government confirms it has started legal action to recover more than £100m from PPE Medpro after the gowns it supplied had been rejected.
The DHSC is seeking the full £122m for the contract, as well as the costs for storing and destroying the garments.
Baroness Mone announces she is taking a leave of absence from the Lords in order to "clear her name".
November 2023
Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman confirm for the first time they were involved in the company - including that he chaired and led the operation, and put up half the money for PPE MedPro.
December 2023
In their first interview since the scandal erupted, Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman admit they lied to the press and the public by not revealing their involvement in PPE MedPro, and apologise.
She also confirms that the profits from the company had been put into a trust and she and her family were named beneficiaries.
However, the pair claimed they are being made "scapegoats" for the government's wider failings over PPE.
