Michelle Mone admits she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit

Michelle Mone has admitted that she stands to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit from personal protective equipment (PPE) sold to the UK government during the pandemic by a company led by her husband, Doug Barrowman.

In an interview with the BBC, the couple apologised for denying their role in the deal for more than three years.

But a defiant Baroness Mone said: “I don’t honestly see there is a case to answer. I can’t see what we have done wrong.”

Having previously denied gaining directly from the contracts, which yielded profits of around £60m, the former Conservative peer admitted that she and her children were beneficiaries of financial trusts where the money is held.

She said “of course” she stands to gain, adding: “If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children.”

She said her life had been “destroyed” by allegations about their PPE profits, even though “we’ve only done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren’t involved”.

She said that was “not a crime” and added: “No-one deserves this.”

Mr Barrowman said that Baroness Mone “was always going to benefit, and my family will benefit in due course… her family benefit, my family benefit”.

“That’s what you do when you are in a privileged position of making money,” he said.

But Baroness Mone insisted that neither she nor her children had yet seen a penny of the money that is being held in the trust. Nor had the couple used the proceeds of the deal to buy a yacht, she said.

She also suggested she would not benefit if “God forbid, we get divorced after this show”.

The businesswoman was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron but is no longer in the party.

Watch the full interview with Michelle Mone

The peer, in an exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, says she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit.

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The couple confirmed to the BBC that they have been under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) “ongoing for two and a half years”, and said that they have both only been interviewed once.

They also confirmed the investigation is into conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery.

The couple admitted to the BBC that they had lied about their involvement with the company that supplied the PPE, called PPE Medpro.

Baroness Mone said: “I should have said I am involved, straight away, but I didn’t want the press intrusion for my family. My family have gone through hell with the media over my career, and I didn’t want another big hoo-ha.”

They first made the admission they were linked to the deal during a documentary funded by the company and posted online.

Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman told the BBC they were “upfront, straight up people”, and apologised for not telling the truth at the start, saying: “We both regret that we didn’t.”

Mr Barrowman said that he had led the PPE Medpro consortium, even though he is not listed at Companies House as having any connection to the company. He told the BBC that he was, in effect, the ultimate beneficial owner of the firm – the person who ultimately owns or controls a company.

Baroness Mone is also under investigation by the House of Lords for not declaring her interest in PPE Medpro.

She told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show that Cabinet Office officials had told her that she only had to declare her interest to them, not the House of Lords.

She said: “I discussed it with the Cabinet Office, and you do not declare your interests in the House of Lords if you are not a director, you’re not a shareholder, you’re not financially benefitting.”

Baroness Mone claimed an official suggested, she just “declare your interest to us”.

“That’s exactly what I did,” she said, “I did everything they asked me to do.

Mr Barrowman said “the Cabinet Office clearly felt there was a perceived conflict, because you have an unusual situation of husband and wife team being together”.

He told the BBC that PPE Medpro had agreed two contracts, to a value of £202m, making a 30% profit of around £60m, which he described as a “good return”.

Mr Barrowman said there had been “no guarantee” that PPE Medpro would be paid until the masks and gowns had been supplied. He added that the “risks were absolutely extraordinary”.

He denied that the deal was profiteering, saying that it had presented very competitive prices for the taxpayer.

A year ago the Department of Health launched a claim for £122m plus costs against PPE Medpro, alleging “breach of contract and unjust enrichment”. This is separate to the criminal investigation being carried out by the NCA.

Mr Barrowman alleged that a government official had suggested he hand over a significant amount of money to “call off the dogs”, which he took to mean to end the criminal investigation. He said: “They asked me would I pay more for the other matter to go away. I was speechless… I was absolutely gobsmacked.”

An NCA spokesperson said: “The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro. The NCA is operationally independent and our investigations are intelligence-led.”

The Department of Health would not comment.

The couple said that the government’s handling of PPE had been “shambolic”.

Baroness Mone said: “It’s appalling that over £9.1 billion was overordered, five years of stock, of PPE, when it only has a shelf life of two years. And all I will say, right now, is why are we not holding them to account, the [Department of Health]?”

She said that their lives had been “destroyed” by the media attention, and that the couple had been scapegoated by the government because they were “high profile and successful”.

The baroness, who is currently on a leave of absence from Parliament, said she hadn’t yet thought about whether she would hand her title back, but said it was “appalling” that Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak had jousted over her situation at Prime Minister’s Questions, “when they don’t know the facts”.

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