Mone's ties with Covid PPE firm admitted

The Conservative peer Michelle Mone has acknowledged for the first time that she was involved with a company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth £200m during the Covid pandemic.

- David Conn

Lady Mone's husband, Douglas Barrowman, has also acknowledged for the first time that he was involved in the company, PPE Medpro.

A representative of Barrowman told the Guardian that the Isle of Man-based businessman was an investor in PPE Medpro, and chaired and led the operation to supply personal protective equipment.

The admissions raise questions about years of denials from the couple. Until now, Mone and Barrowman have consistently and emphatically denied to the Guardian, via lawyers, that they were involved in the company.

In November 2020, Mone's lawyer asserted that "Baroness Mone is not connected in any way with PPE Medpro". Barrowman's lawyers repeatedly denied he was an investor in the company or a consortium supporting it, and said he "never had any role or function in PPE Medpro".

In December 2020, a lawyer instructed by Mone and Barrowman said "any suggestion of an association" between the Tory peer and PPE Medprowould be "inaccurate", "misleading" and "defamatory".

And in February 2022, Mone's lawyer wrote: "You [the Guardian] have now been placed on notice on numerous occasions of our client's position in relation to PPE Medpro. She has no involvement in the business... She has never had any role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro."

Three years on, a representative for the couple, who said he had Mone and Barrowman's permission to respond to questions on their behalf, has made a statement that departs significantly from those denials.