BRA queen Baroness Michelle Mone is facing financial ruin after her husband’s company was ordered to pay the Government £122million damages.
Administrators are preparing to take over PPE Medpro after the High Court ruled it had supplied faulty personal protective equipment during Covid in breach of contract.
Paul Edwards – The SunMichelle Mone’s husband’s company has been ordered to pay the Government £122million damages after losing a High Court battle[/caption]
David EnglishBra tycoon Mone is a life peer but hasn’t attended the House of Lords in years[/caption]
Chancellor Rachel Reeves tonight called for Mone, who lobbied for husband Doug Barrowman’s firm to get highly lucrative contracts, to quit the House of Lords.
She also hailed the verdict, adding: “We want our money back. We are getting our money back.”
However it emerged PPE Medpro has put itself into administration with assets of around £660,000.
The High Court ruled that the firm failed to prove whether its surgical gowns — destined for NHS workers in the grip of a terrifying pandemic — had undergone a validated sterilisation process.
Ultimo tycoon Mone, 53, later hit out, claiming she and Barrowman, 60, were victims of an establishment stitch-up who have been “scapegoated over the PPE scandal”.
The Department of Health and Social Care awarded a £122million gowns contract to PPE Medpro after Mone first approached the-then Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove in May 2020.
The company was also given another contract worth more than £80million to supply face masks — both via a so-called “VIP lane”.
Some 25 million gowns, made in China, were delivered by PPE Medpro in August and October 2020.
But just before Christmas that year, the Government claimed that tests had found “a number of the gowns were not sterile”.
It led to legal action, with Medpro arguing it had complied with the contract and the gowns were sterile. Paul Stanley KC, representing the Government, told the High Court trial in June that of 140 gowns tested, 103 failed.
Mone, who with her husband did not give evidence, was said to have been “active” in discussions which led to the awarding of the contracts.
When the scandal first broke, she initially denied gaining any financial advantage. Then, in a car-crash BBC interview in December 2023, she admitted that “of course” she would benefit.
Doug and I were scapegoated… it’s all about politics and blame-shifting.
Michelle Mone
It was later reported that Barrowman and Mone — who last year sold their £6.8million yacht, called Lady M — had received £65million.
PPE Medpro recently announced it had net assets of just £666,025. It applied for administrators to take over on Tuesday, the day before the High Court verdict.
A long-running investigation into PPE Medpro by the National Crime Agency is still ongoing, along with a House of Lords inquiry.
The Government doled out £10billion of contracts for faulty PPE as the country was crippled by the pandemic. A “hit squad” of investigators has been brought in by the Government to recover funds unlawfully lost.
Tim StewartMone has claimed she is a scapegoat[/caption]
GettyThe High Court ruled that the firm failed to prove whether its surgical gowns had undergone a validated sterilisation process[/caption]
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “PPE Medpro put NHS staff and patients in danger with sub-standard kit while lining their own pockets.
“Today’s court ruling makes clear we won’t stand for it and we’re coming after every penny owed to our NHS. This Government will ruthlessly pursue any company which tried to exploit the pandemic for their own ends while our health service was fighting to save lives. PPE Medpro must now repay the Government and the taxpayer £122million. My department will work closely with PPE Medpro Limited’s administrators to recover everything we can.”
Government lawyers had said the case was “not concerned with any profits made by anybody” and it was “simply about compliance”.
The huge damages sum is due on October 15.
However the ruling by Lady Justice Cockerill was branded “shocking but all too predictable” by Mone. She wrote on X: “It is nothing less than an establishment win for the Government in a case that was too big for them to lose.
“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 £10billion 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.” Her husband called the verdict a “travesty of justice”.
We want our money back. It will go where it belongs.. in our schools & NHS
Rachel Reeves
He said it “bears little resemblance to what actually took place during the month-long trial, where PPE Medpro convincingly demonstrated that its gowns were sterile”.
Mone, who received an OBE in 2010 for her contribution to business, is currently on a leave of absence from the House of Lords, where she was made a life peer in 2015.
But the Chancellor indicated she should permanently leave after “ripping off taxpayers”.
Ms Reeves told BBC 5 Live: “She clearly shouldn’t be in the House of Lords.” She also blasted PPE Medpro for going into administration.
She said: “I think it tells you a lot about the company that instead of saying sorry and paying back the money, they’ve gone into administration.
“But we will now work with the administrators and all different authorities to do everything we can to get that money back because that money belongs in our schools, in our hospitals and in our communities and I’ll do everything in my power to get that money back.”
Ms Reeves said investigators are still pursuing criminal acts during Covid, having reclaimed £400million. She added: “We’re not stopping there. We’ll pursue anyone that ripped off taxpayers.”
She also blasted the Tory government’s actions during the pandemic.
The Chancellor said: “Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money were wasted on Covid contracts, lining the pockets of Conservative donors and friends while the public was left to pick up the bill.”
ReutersI think it tells you a lot about the company that instead of saying sorry and paying back the money, they’ve gone into administration, said Reeves[/caption]
BBCMone, who with her husband did not give evidence, was said to have been ‘active’ in discussions which led to the awarding of the contracts.[/caption]
Stephen Flynn, SNP leader at Westminster, backed calls for Mone’s peerage to be removed, which would require an Act of Parliament.
He said: “This can’t be the end of the story. The public need to have that money returned to them. That money needs to be back in the public purse but most importantly there needs to be consequences. Michelle Mone should not be in the House of Lords.
“The Government can make sure that doesn’t happen and I will support them if they do that.”
A National Crime Agency spokesperson said: “The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.
“This ongoing investigation remains a priority for the agency.
FROM RAGS TO RICHES
BORN into poverty in Glasgow’s East End, Michelle Mone’s rags-to-riches rise saw her become one of Britain’s best-known business leaders with a seat in the House of Lords.
The future Baroness Mone of Mayfair was raised in a one- bedroom home where her childhood was marked by hardship.
Her younger brother died when he was eight and she left school with no qualifications aged 15 to help support her family after her dad, Duncan, lost the use of his legs through cancer.
Mone’s early career included stints as model and then a rapid rise to become head of marketing for Labatt Brewing in Scotland.
But her high-flying business career really took off in the 1990s.
Frustrated by an uncomfortable cleavage-enhancing bra she created her own design.
In 1996, she co-founded MJM International with her then- husband, Michael Mone, and in 1999 they launched the Ultimo bra at Selfridges in London.
It was an immediate success. Mone became a celebrated media figure, known for her grit and self-promotion.
In 2011, she and Michael, who had three kids, divorced.
She bought him out of the business before selling a majority stake and moving into politics. She swapped her allegiance from Labour to the Tories in 2009 and PM David Cameron made her a life peer in 2015.
Mone got an OBE for her contribution to business in 2010 and starred on TV’s The Apprentice — You’re Fired.
She met billionaire Barrowman at business dinner in 2016, and the couple wed in a lavish ceremony at her Isle of Man mansion in November 2020.
Their business downfall began in November 2021 with VIP lane revelations. A £122million lawsuit was launched against her PPE firm in December 2022.
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