Michelle Mone-linked Covid PPE company evidence to be heard privately

Evidence relating to the PPE company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband will be heard by the Covid Inquiry in private next month.

The inquiry will examine UK Government decisions regarding the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic.

The inquiry’s chair determined the hearings – beginning on March 3 and expected to last four weeks – should be private despite arguments from campaigners and media that the risk of prejudicing ongoing police investigations was low.

Former Tory peer Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman are facing an investigation by the National Crime Agency over suspected criminal offences in the procurement of PPE contracts during the pandemic.

PPE Medpro, a company owned by Barrowman, is being probed after it was awarded more than £200m in contracts to supply PPE to the NHS after Mone recommended it through the UK Government’s “VIP lane” in 2020.

The firm is also being sued by the UK’s Department for Health and Social Care over the 2020 deal on the supply of gowns.

Last year, Mone and Barrowman reportedly had £75m of assets frozen by court order, including nine properties in Glasgow.

According to the Financial Times, the asset freeze, obtained by the Crown Prosecution Service, included properties in Glasgow – where Mone is from – as well as a townhouse in London, an estate on the Isle of Man and several elite bank accounts.

A spokesman for the couple said: “This comes as a result of a consensual process during which negotiations took place with the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service).

“It allows the wider businesses and assets of the Barrowman family to operate normally and free from any restrictions or uncertainties.

“Doug and Michelle did not contest the application and were happy to offer up these assets, which means they can begin the task of proving their innocence more quickly.

“Mr Barrowman finds it deplorable that private matters such as this are being conducted in the public realm via leaks from government departments and the CPS.”

In December 2023, the Baroness admitted she did not tell the truth about her links to Medpro but insisted that she and her husband have “no case to answer”.

Mone insisted that lying to the media is “not a crime”.

She conceded she made an “error” in publicly denying her links to the firm.

The Ultimo bra tycoon admitted she is a beneficiary of her husband’s financial trusts, which hold around £60m of profit from the deal, but said the couple have been made “scapegoats” for the UK Government’s wider failings over PPE.

Lady Mone has repeatedly denied that she profited from the deal, which she first discussed with government, ministers including Michael Gove.