PPE firm linked to Michelle Mone misses deadline to repay £122m | Michelle Mone
A company linked to former Conservative peer Michelle Mone has paid the government none of the £122 million ordered by a high court ruling over the supply of unusable personal protective equipment during the Covid outbreak.
Ms Justice Cockerill ruled that PPE Medpro must return by 4pm on 15 October the money paid by the Department of Health and Social Care for 25 million sterile surgical gowns under a contract signed in June 2020.
Reacting just before 5pm, health minister Wes Streeting said PPE Medpro had failed to meet the deadline and the government would pursue the company for payment. DHSC said ongoing interest on £122 million since PPE gowns were rejected as unusable in late 2020 now stands at £23.7 million, bringing the total debt to almost £146 million.
“At a time of national crisis, PPE Medpro sold the previous government’s substandard kit and pocketed taxpayers’ hard-earned money,” Streeting said. “PPE Medpro has failed to meet its payment deadline – it still owes us over £145 million and interest is now accruing on a daily basis.
“We will pursue PPE Medpro with everything we can to get these funds back to the NHS where they belong.”
Interest will now accumulate at 8% per annum, DHSC said.
Questions remain about how the government can get its money back, as the company owned by Mone’s husband, Isle of Man-based businessman Doug Barrowman, was left with little cash and went into administration on September 30, the day before the verdict was announced.
A spokesman for Barrowman and Mone said “PPE Medpro’s consortium partners” were “prepared to engage in dialogue with the company’s executives to discuss a possible agreement with the government,” referring to three intermediary companies involved in the supply of gowns.
Labor appeared to have not accepted this proposed discussion of the settlement and expected full payment to be made by the deadline.
After Mone first met then-Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove in May 2020, the DHSC awarded PPE Medpro its £122m contract for gowns and a further contract for face masks worth £80.85m (£203m total). The contracts were processed through the “VIP line” operated by Boris Johnson’s Conservative government during the pandemic, which gives high priority to people with political connections. Mone was appointed to the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2015.
He and Barrowman, through their lawyers, denied involvement in PPE Medpro for years. In November 2022, the Guardian revealed that Barrowman was paid at least £65 million from PPE Medpro’s profits, then transferred £29 million to a trust set up to benefit Mone and his three adult children.
In December 2023, Mone admitted in an interview with the BBC that the couple had lied and confirmed their involvement with the company. Barrowman admitted he was paid more than £60 million and transferred the money to the trust; The couple said their children were also beneficiaries.
