Cabinet ministers are refusing to hand over papers relating to £200m of pandemic contracts to a firm linked to Conservative peer Michelle Mone.
The government claims the files are “commercially sensitive” and that it’s now in mediation about products supplied by PPE Medpro – set up in 2020 by a business associate of Mone, who founded the lingerie brand Ultimo.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “The government’s failure to come clean about the millions of taxpayers’ money awarded to Tory-linked Medpro reeks of a cover-up.
“The fact that Medpro is in mediation for providing useless PPE is no excuse for failing to be transparent with the public. It only strengthens the need for clarity about how this eye-watering waste was allowed to happen.”
Weeks after being set up Medpro landed the first of two PPE contracts, worth more than £203m, for surgical masks and gowns.
Mone had referred the firm to the Cabinet Office via a so-called “VIP lane.”
Her lawyer later said the peer took this “very simple, solitary and brief step of referring PPE Medpro as a potential supplier” but then “did not do anything further”.
It was reported last week that Mone’s London home had been raided as part of a National Crime Agency fraud probe into PPE deals relating to the firm.
In a letter to the Cabinet Office, Rayner wrote: “There have been a number of long-standing concerns over the role played by Tory peer Baroness Mone.
“As a new company it cannot have had a track record of supplying PPE to the NHS or other buyers and it is unclear what financial standing it had.”
She called for the government to publish “all correspondence and records” of the contracts. However, Health Minister Edward Argar has declined to hand over the communications.
He wrote: “Departmental records reflect a link between Baroness Mone and PPE Medpro was clear prior to contracts being awarded.
“We are unable to provide correspondence and records relating to the award of the PPE Medpro contract as these remain commercially sensitive, given the department is engaged in a mediation process concerning products it received from PPE Medpro, which involves confidentiality undertakings.”
Mone was emailed for comment and the UK Government declined to comment.
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