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- The Tory peer and her husband spoke on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
Baroness Michelle Mone has admitted she and her husband stand to financially gain from £200million of contracts between the Government and a PPE firm they lied about their links to.
The Conservative peer and Ultimo bra tycoon apologised this morning for trying to conceal her family’s links to Medpro after it won a contract to supply personal protective equipment when she recommended it to ministers.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Baroness Mone said she is a beneficiary of her husband Doug Barrowman’s financial trusts, which hold around £60million of profit from the deal, which is being investigated by by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The 52-year-old was apologetic and conceded she made an ‘error’ in publicly denying her links to the firm, but insists she and her husband have been made ‘scapegoats’ for the Government’s wider failings over PPE.
This claim was slapped down by deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, who claimed this morning that he ‘doesn’t accept that’ the couple are being unfairly targeted after controversy surrounding ‘VIP lane’ contracts during the coronavirus pandemic.
![Baroness Michelle Mone has admitted for the first time she stands to gain financially from a PPE contract with the Government. Pictured: Undated handout photo of Baroness Mone](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/08/wire-79051941-1702801166-184_634x845.jpg)
Baroness Michelle Mone has admitted for the first time she stands to gain financially from a PPE contract with the Government. Pictured: Undated handout photo of Baroness Mone
![The Conservative peer and Ultimo bra tycoon has been embroiled in controversy surrounding 'Covid VIP lane' contracts worth more than £200million that were awarded to the company during the pandemic](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/78847871-12873497-The_Conservative_peer_and_Ultimo_bra_tycoon_has_been_embroiled_i-a-13_1702803999681.jpg)
The Conservative peer and Ultimo bra tycoon has been embroiled in controversy surrounding ‘Covid VIP lane’ contracts worth more than £200million that were awarded to the company during the pandemic
Baroness Mone had repeatedly denied that she had profited from the deal, which she first discussed with government ministers including Michael Gove.
It was during her chat with the BBC that Baroness Mone conceded to making repeated untruthful statements in relation to the matter.
Baroness Mone told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: ‘If one day, if God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children, so yes, of course.’
The peer said she did not mean to fool anyone, despite admitting the couple misled the press about their involvement.
‘I did make an error in saying to the press that I wasn’t involved,’ she said
‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, and I regret and I’m sorry for not saying straight out, yes, I am involved.’
Speaking on the programme Baroness Mone said ‘everyone in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS, the Cabinet Office, the Government, knew of my involvement’ in the deal.
Mr Barrowman admitted the deal arose out of an ‘unusual situation’ with his wife acting as a ‘conduit’ between the consortium behind the firm and the Government.
He added that if the Government was ‘not satisfied they should never have awarded us the contracts, they should have said ‘there’s a perceived conflict here”.
The Department of Health and Social Care has since issued breach of contract proceedings over the 2020 deal on the supply of gowns.
Millions of gowns supplied by the company were never used by health services.
But Baroness Mone insisted that she and her husband have ‘no case to answer’ on the controversy over the PPE firm Medpro scandal.
She said: ‘I don’t honestly see there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong.
‘Doug and the consortium have simply delivered a contract, a delivery contract of goods.’
She said it was ‘not a crime’ to lie to the press.
‘Saying to the press, I’m not involved to protect my family, can I just make this clear, it’s not a crime. The press have got nothing to do with my family. I was protecting my family.’
The entrepreneur said: ‘At the end of the day, the masks were delivered, they were high quality masks at the best prices, the gowns were delivered, there was no issue with the gowns.
‘They passed them, they paid for them, they congratulated them on the quality as well.’
Baroness Mone added that she had received ‘over 700 threats’ against her family and their lives have been ‘destroyed’ by the accusations.
The peer said this included people threatening to throw acid over her and burn her house down, saying: ‘We’ve been absolutely vilified.’
![PPE Medpro was awarded Government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply personal protective equipment after Lady Mone recommended it to ministers](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/78847869-12873497-PPE_Medpro_was_awarded_Government_contracts_worth_more_than_200_-a-15_1702804016567.jpg)
PPE Medpro was awarded Government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply personal protective equipment after Lady Mone recommended it to ministers
![Lady Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman previously said they've 'done nothing wrong'. Pictured: The couple talking in a scene from the documentary](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/78790023-12873497-Lady_Mone_and_her_husband_Doug_Barrowman_said_they_ve_done_nothi-a-14_1702804010775.jpg)
Lady Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman previously said they’ve ‘done nothing wrong’. Pictured: The couple talking in a scene from the documentary
![Michelle Mone opens the new Ultimo concession at Debenhams, Glasgow in 2015](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/78789971-12873497-Michelle_Mone_opens_the_new_Ultimo_concession_at_Debenhams_Glasg-a-16_1702804026148.jpg)
Michelle Mone opens the new Ultimo concession at Debenhams, Glasgow in 2015
![Baroness Mone in the House of Lords before the State Opening Of Parliament at Houses of Parliament in 2017](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/78847865-12873497-Baroness_Mone_in_the_House_of_Lords_before_the_State_Opening_Of_-a-17_1702804385594.jpg)
Baroness Mone in the House of Lords before the State Opening Of Parliament at Houses of Parliament in 2017
![Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said he doesn't accept that Baroness Mone and her husband have been made 'scapegoats'. Pictured: Mr Dowden arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London on Sunday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/79052475-12873497-image-a-21_1702804942922.jpg)
Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said he doesn’t accept that Baroness Mone and her husband have been made ‘scapegoats’. Pictured: Mr Dowden arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London on Sunday
Baroness Mone, who was made a peer by Lord David Cameron in 2015, has argued she is being used as a scapegoat by the Government for its own Covid failings.
But this was batted back by Mr Dowden who told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: ‘I don’t accept that.
‘What I would say is that there is an ongoing investigation by both the National Crime Agency and, indeed, the Department of Health is suing the company concerned in civil litigation.
‘So, there’s a limit to what I can say, but I don’t recognise that.’
He also told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that it was ‘categorically not the case’ that cronyism was involved in a so-called ‘VIP lane’.
‘The Government’s intention in respect of that was to make sure that if legitimate claims came forward, we’d process them quickly.
‘There were no favours or special treatment.’
Responding to questions about the amount of money made in the deal, Mr Barrowman said Medpro ‘made a good return for the risk involved’.
‘To fund these contracts with manufacturers, you have to pay 50 per cent upfront, so £202 million of contracts, that’s a lot of money,’ he said.
‘The government did not give us any deposits up front. And at one stage in the contract, they owed us £74 million and I can assure you, we were sweating, because the government held all the cards with the contracts until they were happy with the outcomes and the products that we had supplied, there was no guarantee we would get paid. So, the risks were absolutely extraordinary.’
Baroness Mone, who was interviewed alongside her husband, recently told a YouTube documentary that they both would be cleared, arguing they have ‘done nothing wrong’.
The film, part of a public fightback, is believed to have been funded by PPE Medpro.
It comes as two experts who appeared in the film told The Sunday Times that they were unaware in advance of the intended focus of the documentary or its funding.
The documentary, which was funded by PPE Medpro, according to the Sunday Telegraph, also heard from experts discussing the use of PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic and the wider scandal in general.
However, they have now said they were unaware of Baroness Mone’s involvement or that it had been paid for by the firm, with one claiming he had been ‘used’ to add ‘respectability and seriousness’ to the now ‘discredited’ film.
David Oliver, a former president of the Royal College of Physicians, also appeared in the film to discuss PPE shortages in hospitals during the pandemic.
Mr Oliver, 57, said he was initially approached in August by Mr Williams-Thomas’s assistant, and he understood that the film would focus on PPE supplies during Covid rather than the scandal itself.
He told The Sunday Times: ‘At no point was it mentioned by the production team that they would be receiving funding from PPE Medpro or any other PPE supplier — let alone that they would be using my interview in a documentary that also gave a platform to Baroness Mone.
‘If either of these things had been made clear to me at any point, I would have refused to be interviewed or have my interview used.
![Doug Barrowman (left) pictured with Baroness Michelle Mone (right) at Cheltenham in 2019](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/65680393-12873497-Doug_Barrowman_left_pictured_with_Baroness_Michelle_Mone_right_a-a-18_1702804852257.jpg)
Doug Barrowman (left) pictured with Baroness Michelle Mone (right) at Cheltenham in 2019
![Baroness Mone and Douglas Barrowman at 'Dining With The Stars' charity dinner in 2019](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/65680129-12873497-Baroness_Mone_and_Douglas_Barrowman_at_Dining_With_The_Stars_cha-a-19_1702804855968.jpg)
Baroness Mone and Douglas Barrowman at ‘Dining With The Stars’ charity dinner in 2019
![The couple pictured at Casa Do Lago restaurant in Quinta do Lago, in February this year](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/09/68261827-12873497-The_couple_pictured_at_Casa_Do_Lago_restaurant_in_Quinta_do_Lago-a-20_1702804858370.jpg)
The couple pictured at Casa Do Lago restaurant in Quinta do Lago, in February this year
‘I do not think Mr Williams-Thomas has behaved with integrity, transparency or full disclosure. It is disappointing to be used in that way, to try and provide an appearance of respectability and seriousness to a documentary that has been discredited as a piece of independent investigative journalism due to its funding and Michelle Mone using it as a platform for her self-defence.’
Another expert, Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association, said she was also unaware that Baroness Mone would appear in the film and that it was funded by PPE Medpro.
She told The Sunday Times she was interviewed by Mr Williams-Thomas in September for what she thought was a documentary about PPE. She only recently discovered that it would feature an ‘exclusive interview with Baroness Mone’.
Ms Ahmed told the newspaper: ‘I was told it was a documentary about PPE, because I would not have got involved with anything where there was a third party involved unless I knew who they were.
‘I’m disturbed to hear it, definitely. I’m a bit annoyed to say the least that this person did not tell me this was being funded by people who were trying to defend themselves, whether they’re right or wrong, I don’t really care. I feel they should have been upfront.’
Former detective-turned-investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas, who presented and produced, the documentary, said: ‘For the Sunday Times to suggest contributors were duped is totally refuted, un-evidenced and totally incorrect & unfair reporting.
‘Both individuals have said they would have said exactly the same had they known the programme was eventually funded by PPE Medpro.’