Michelle Mone admits to Laura Kuenssberg she stands to benefit from PPE contract
Tory peer Baroness Michelle Mone has FINALLY admitted she stands to benefit from £200million of PPE contracts at the heart of a fraud probe.
In her first interview about the PPE Medpro scandal, the underwear tycoon insisted she and her husband Doug Barrowman have been made "scapegoats". She insisted that she'd done nothing wrong other than lying to the press - which she said is "not a crime".
But after pressing by BBC host Laura Kuenssberg, she conceded she's a beneficiary of Mr Barrowman's financial trusts, which hold around £60million of profits from the deal. She also claimed that other Lords and Baronesses were acting in the same way.
Mone said: "I don’t honestly see there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong. Doug and the consortium have simply delivered a contract, a delivery contract of goods."
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has been investigating their role in the contract, and 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. On top of that she is being probed in the House of Lords.
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Her appearance on the flagship BBC politics show comes after the first court hearing in a legal battle between the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the firm. The Government awarded it two contracts, including one worth £122million for 25 million gowns. But it says these were not fit for use - which PPE Medpro denies - and were never used.
Mone and husband Doug Barrowman hit back at the allegations they face (BBC)During her chat with Ms Kuenssberg, Mone added making untruthful statements about her role in the company, which was set up in May 2020. It was awarded the huge contract, and another worth £81million for supplying face masks - the following month after Mone referred it to a Government "VIP lane".
But she maintained she and Mr Barrowman have "done a lot of good", adding: "If we were to say anything that we have done, that we are sorry for, and that’s we should have told the press straight up, straight away, nothing to hide. Everyone knew of our involvement and we should have said to them of our involvement and we were just trying to not have all the front covers of the pages again, for my family and I was just protecting my family."
She added: "I’m sorry for that, but I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. No one."
Mone insisted that the money from the contracts wasn't hers, but eventually conceded that she and her children stand to benefit in the long run. She said: “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.” She claimed that despite misleading the press about her role in the company, she didn't mean to fool anyone. This includes The Mirror which has been spearheading the probe,
She said: “I did make an error in saying to the press that I wasn’t involved. 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.”
Mone said she had responded to a "call to arms" and had put in a call to Cabinet member Michael Gove saying: "We want to help." She claimed she had followed Cabinet Office advice about declaring her involvement.
She said: "I was just acting the same way as every other baroness and lord who were also putting names forward." She claimed she denied her involvement because she didn't want a "hoo ha" in the press. "We've done a lot of good but if we were to say something we have done wrong we should have told the press."
Mone maintained: "It's my husband's money, the money isn't my money, it's not my children's money." She insisted she was being "straightforward", maintaining; "That cash isn't my cash and my children's cash."
Lashing out at the Government, she said: "The reason why Doug and I are sitting here is because we've been scapegoats and they've destroyed our lives... the narrative suits them to attack us." She claimed to have been "vilified" and claimed: "We've done one thing which is lie to the press and say we weren't involved."
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Quizzed about her claim that she's being scapegoated, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told Sky News: "I don't accept that. What I would say is that there is an ongoing investigation by both the National Crime Agency and, indeed, the Department of Health is suing the company concerned in civil litigation. So, there's a limit to what I can say, but I don't recognise that."
Mone - who was elevated to the Lords by former Tory PM David Cameron - is facing a separate investigation by the Lords Commissioner for Standards. This is looking into whether she breached the conduct rules by failing to register an interest in the company and by lobbying for it to be awarded Government contracts. She has denied wrongdoing.
In December, Mone’s spokesperson announced she was taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords “in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her”.
The couple insist the gowns were supplied in accordance with the contract. Mone, who was interviewed alongside her husband, recently told a YouTube documentary that they both would be cleared, arguing they have “done nothing wrong”.
That film, part of a public fightback, is believed to have been funded by PPE Medpro. 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.
In that YouTube film she said: “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."
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