10 December 2023 , 14:18
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Baroness Mone admits she regrets misleading the Mirror three years ago about her role in the PPE Medpro scandal.
When we first revealed links between Mone and the newly formed company which won more than £200m in Covid contracts, her spokesperson told us: "Baroness Mone has no comment as she has no role or involvement in PPE Medpro." But in her first interview in two years, released today, Mone was told, "You lied to the press, didn't you?". She replied: "I made an error in what I said to the press. I regret not saying to the press straight away, 'Yes, I am involved. And the Government knew I was involved'."
She added: “I was a conduit. I was a liaison person. I brought it all together." Her husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, said: "It is absurd, when you see the volume of communication that goes on, to say that she was anything other than involved, and that has always been accepted by us." In the 70-minute documentary by former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, which was funded by PPE Medpro, it emerged that Baroness Mone and her husband have been interviewed by officers from the National Crime Agency, who launched an investigation into PPE Medpro more than two years ago.
The Conservative peer admitted she felt 'ashamed' of her role because of government actions (Humphrey Nemar/ dailty mirror)
Baroness Mone said she has 'regret' over not telling Mirror journalists the truth three years ago (PA)The film revealed new details of the NCA investigation - Mone is suspected of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and bribery. She denies all the allegations and insists she has done nothing wrong. It comes after the first court hearing took place in the legal battle between the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and PPE Medpro this week over a £122m contract for 25 million gowns which the Government says were not sterile. PPE Medpro denies the claims.
Mone and Barrowman used the film to claim they have been scapegoated. Mone says she is on medication as a result of the scrutiny and has trouble sleeping, saying: “I am in a lot of pain.” She added: “We will win because we have done nothing wrong. “I am ashamed of being a Conservative peer given what this government has done to us." After we revealed, in October 2020, that PPE Medpro was set up by Barrowman’s business associate Anthony Page on the same day as he quit as secretary of the company handling Mone’s brand, the couple continued to deny they were linked with the firm.
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She admitted decisions made by her husband in the company may 'indirectly benefit' herMone now says: “What I did say to them was I’m not a shareholder, which is true, I’m not a director, which is true, I’m not financially benefiting directly, which is true. But I didn’t want to start speaking to the press about it and I didn’t want the pain for my family." The film, released on YouTube, fails to properly grill either Mone or Barrowman on how much they personally made from the profits of PPE Medpro. It has been reported that bank accounts and trusts linked to Barrowman received £65m in profits from the PPE deal in September 2020 and then transferred £29m to a trust set up to benefit Mone and her children the following month.
Mone’s response is: “What my husband decides to do after the event and who benefits from that is at his discretion. I am his wife and I may indirectly benefit." Barrowman said: ”We wouldn’t have got involved knowing what I now know. We didn’t need to get involved. It wasn’t a question of we needed the money, as the primary motivation. We wanted to help and do our bit.” Mone and Barrowman insist that they saved the Government “tens of millions of pounds” by delivering PPE cheaper than other alternative suppliers.
The Conservative life peer says she is in 'a lot of pain' following the contract investigation (Getty Images)Barrowman said that by the end August 2020, after the gowns had been delivered, “it was clear they had way too much” and “were looking for technicalities on the contract to try to get out of paying”. Williams-Thomas says he has doubts about the checks which led to the DHSC saying that PPE Medpro’s gowns were not sterile. He says the results of tests on 24 other suppliers have not been made public, claims that only a small portion of the PPE Medpro gowns were tested and suggests they could have become non-sterile after they were handed over to the firm that transported them.
Barrowman accused the DHSC of “threatening language” when PPE Medpro began mediation talks in September 2021 and claims that NCA investigation was used as “leverage” to push him to offer more money to settle the claim. Mr Barrowman also alleges he was “gobsmacked” when a DHSC official suggested the NCA's criminal investigation might "go away" if he increased his offer to settle the civil case. He recorded a follow-up call in which the same official added “we don't have any meaningful contact there, so there's nothing we can reasonably do” but at the same time wondered whether “there's a bigger pot if you like, that is there to satisfy both elements".
Michelle Mone first confirmed her involvement with the company in November 2023 (Tim Merry / Daily Mirror)A spokesman for the NCA said: "The NCA is operationally independent of Government, and our investigations are intelligence-led." Six minutes of the film is devoted to other contracts referred to the VIP lane by politicians, including former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and former Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove. But Williams-Thomas admits: “We have no evidence that any of the MPs or Peers named benefited from their referring companies to the High Priority VIP lane.”
The former detective turned journalist also claims a source has told him of another 16 contracts from the VIP lane which have not been released. He said: “The Government is just not being open or transparent in relation to the information they hold. They are not releasing it. I firmly believe if everything was known there would be other MPs, ministers and House of Lords representatives who would be under investigation. It is clear that the Government’s handling of the PPE procurement was shambolic and I, like others, question the awarding of some of those contracts."
A DHSC spokesman said its staff follow all laws and regulations, adding: "We do not comment on ongoing legal cases." Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, insisted that "ministers did not take individual decisions" on pandemic contracts. Mr Gove told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: "Those decisions were taken after a painstaking process by teams of civil servants who assess the worthiness of any contract that's put forward. So the suggestion, which some have put forward, that somehow ministers were seeking deliberately to do favours, or line the pockets of other individuals, I think is totally unjustified."