Mone's admission over PPE firm controversy

BARONESS Michelle Mone has admitted she did not tell the truth about her links to a PPE firm, Medpro, but she insisted yesterday that she and her husband have "no case to answer".

The company is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA), while the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued breach of contract proceedings over a 2020 deal on the supply of gowns.

Now, in her first major broadcast interview since the scandal emerged, Lady Mone insisted that lying to the media is "not a crime".

She has admitted she stands to benefit from a deal between the Government and the firm, which was awarded contracts worth more than £200 million to supply personal protective equipment after she recommended it to ministers.

Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she conceded she made an "error" in publicly denying her links to the firm. She admitted she is a beneficiary of her husband Doug Barrowman's financial trusts, which hold around £60 million of profit from the deal, but said the couple have been made "scapegoats" for the Government's wider failings over PPE.