Michelle Mone admits she stands to benefit from £60 million Covid equipment profit
17 December 2023, 07:50
Michelle Mone has said she stands to benefit from a contract between the government and the Covid equipment company PPE Medpro.
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PPE Medpro was given government contracts worth over £200 million to supply protective equipment during the pandemic, after the Conservative peer recommended it to ministers.
She has previously denied links to the company which is under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Baroness Mone admitted on Sunday that she is a beneficiary of her husband Doug Barrowman's financial trusts, which hold around £60m of profit from the government deal.
She also said that denying her connection to Medpro was a mistake.
But Baroness Mone told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that she and Mr Barrowman have been made scapegoats for wider failings in the government's handling of PPE requirements during Covid.
Michelle Mone 'admits involvement in VIP Lane PPE company' for first time
"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," she said.
Baroness Mone 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."
She said that the government and the NHS knew she was involved, and she had declared her interest with the Cabinet Office.
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".
Baroness Mone, a lingerie entrepreneur, was made a Conservative peer in 2015 by David Cameron. She took a leave of absence from the House of Lords last year, saying she wanted to clear her name.
Millions of medical gowns supplied by PPE Medpro were never used, and the company is facing a civil claim from the department of health and social care. Baroness Mone said the gowns were supplied in line with the contract.
