A LUXURY office complex in Aberdeen run by Michelle Mone has links to the same network of companies involved in the PPE scandal, it has been revealed.
Neospace, an £18 million office building, was opened by Michelle Mone and her husband Douglas Barrowman last year.
However, there are calls for the couple to reveal how the project was funded in the wake of Mone taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords.
Mone’s departure from the House of Lords comes after allegations emerged that she financially benefitted from a multi-million pound PPE contract handed out by the UK Government.
She has links to the company PPE Medpro, which won two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns to the NHS.
The gowns failed quality checks and were never used by the health service.
Sources in Whitehall have since said that Mone bullied and hectored the government into awarding the contracts to PPE Medpro.
The Baroness is now under investigation from the House of Lords commissioner for standards and faces a potential fraud investigation from the National Crime Agency.
It is alleged that Mone and her family benefitted from £29m in profits made by PPE Medpro as a result of the government contracts.
Now there are calls for Mone and her husband to reveal how the 22,000 square-foot office complex on the banks of the Dee was funded – and whether government money was involved.
The project was billed as an attempt to reinvent the modern workspace and the building contains a golf simulator, a gym complete with sauna, and a juice bar as well as offices.
Aberdeen City Council also authorised the sale of alcohol at the building until 11pm.
Neither Mone nor her husband are listed as directors of Neospace on the Companies House website, despite being the public faces of the project.
An investigation by the Sunday Mail revealed that two people based in the tax haven of the Isle of Man control the firm, both of whom were also directors of PPE Medpro.
Barrowman bought the building in 2013 but Neospace (Aberdeen) Limited wasn’t set up until February 2020, just a few months before PPE Medpro.
The National Crime Agency refused to confirm or deny whether Neospace was part of their potential investigation into Mone.
Kirsty Blackman, the SNP MP for Aberdeen North, said: “If these allegations are proven true, Michelle Mone must resign and be stripped of her title.
“The public deserve answers on exactly how much money she and her family have made from these contracts, what they did with that money and what tax arrangements were made.
"The Westminster government is broken and rife with cronyism.”
