A company linked to Michelle Mone that was awarded £203m worth of government PPE contracts during the pandemic has been issued with a winding up petition.
PPE Medpro was awarded two contracts via the government’s “VIP lane” after Conservative peer Lady Mone approached Michael Gove in May 2020 with an offer to supply personal protective equipment.
The HM Revenue and Customs winding up petition was first reported by courts blogger Daniel Cloake yesterday, although no details were given as to how much tax is claimed to be owed, or for how long it has been outstanding.
Reporting by The Guardian previously revealed that Mone emailed fellow Tory peer Theodore Agnew on 8 May 2020, telling him that Gove had asked her to “urgently” contact him. She proposed supplying large quantities of face masks to the government, telling Agnew they could be sourced through “my team in Hong Kong”.
Agnew, at the time a Cabinet Office minister responsible for procurement, referred Mone’s offer to civil servants, who processed it through channels reserved for politically connected people. The company that was given the contracts was not incorporated until 12 May 2020, four days after Mone approached Agnew.
A month later, PPE Medpro was awarded its first contract, for £80.85m to supply 210 million face masks. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) awarded the second contract two weeks later, for £122m, to supply 25 million surgical gowns. Both were awarded directly, without competitive tenders, under coronavirus emergency regulations.
The second contract became subject to a dispute after the DHSC rejected the gowns and sought to recover its money through a dispute resolution process. PPE Medpro has maintained that it complied with the terms of its gowns contract and was entitled to keep the money it was paid.
The company’s first financial accounts, for the year to 5 April 2021, stated that it had no assets, had made a profit of £3.9m, was owed a further £4m, and owed £913,019 in tax, due within a year.
Mone has consistently denied being involved in PPE Medpro, with her lawyers stating: “Baroness Mone is neither an investor, director or shareholder in any way associated with PPE Medpro, she has never had any role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro.”
Her husband, Isle of Man-based financier Douglas Barrowman, also distanced himself from the company, although his lawyers have not commented on whether he financially benefited from it.
House of Lords standards commissioner Martin Jelley launched an investigation into whether Mone’s links to the company breached rules relating to members. She has denied any wrongdoing and the probe is ongoing.
In April, the National Crime Agency executed search warrants at Mone and Barrowman’s mansion in the Isle of Man and several other properties, including the offices of PPE Medpro.
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