Corruption investigators examining potential criminal wrongdoing in the awarding of multimillion-pound contracts during the Covid crisis have interviewed Matt Hancock and Michael Gove as witnesses.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is investigating PPE Medpro, a company that won £200m in contracts and with which the Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, were involved.
Hancock, the former health secretary, and Gove, the former Cabinet Office minister, were interviewed as NCA investigators try to understand how and why contracts were awarded and whether any criminal laws were broken.
Investigators do not suspect either senior politician of wrongdoing nor is there any suggestion of such.
The two and a half year-long criminal investigation is been overseen by the NCA’s international corruption unit.
Earlier this month, Mone acknowledged for the first time she was involved with the company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth £200m during the pandemic.
Mone’s husband has also acknowledged that he was involved in PPE Medpro.
A representative of Barrowman told the Guardian that the Isle of Man-based businessman was an investor in PPE Medpro, and chaired the operation to supply personal protective equipment.
It followed repeated denials of any involvement. Mone, Barrowman and a spokesperson for PPE Medpro have not commented on the NCA investigation.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is taking legal action for the full return of the £122m it paid for millions of unused surgical gowns that PPE Medpro supplied under one of its contracts, with the government claiming they were unsafe for use in the NHS. The company is defending the claim.
The contracts were processed through the DHSC’s “VIP” high priority lane, which fast-tracked offers of PPE from companies with connections to the Conservative party or government.
The DHSC granted PPE Medpro two contracts in May and June 2020, near the start of the pandemic, to supply millions of face masks and sterile surgical gowns for a total of £203m.
The Guardian has previously revealed that Mone made the first approach to the then Cabinet Office ministers Michael Gove and Theodore Agnew, telling them she could source PPE through “my team in Hong Kong”.
Documents indicate tens of millions of pounds of PPE Medpro’s profits were later transferred to a secret offshore trust of which Mone and her adult children were the beneficiaries.
Last November, the Guardian reported that leaked HSBC bank documents indicated Barrowman was paid at least £65m from PPE Medpro’s profits then transferred £29m into a trust for Mone and her three adult children.
In a statement, the NCA said: “The NCA can confirm its International Corruption Unit opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.”
A spokesperson for the NCA declined to comment on the formal witness interviews with Gove and Hancock, saying the agency did not comment on ongoing investigations.
In April 2022, the NCA investigation led to searches on several properties in the Isle of Man and London.
They included the Isle of Man office building where PPE Medpro is registered and the mansion where Mone lives with Barrowman.
The Isle of Man constabulary confirmed that search warrants were executed at four addresses on the island on Wednesday “in support of an ongoing NCA investigation”. There were no arrests.
The NCA witness interviews with Hancock and Gove was first reported by the Sunday Times. Both have been approached for comment.
