Michelle Mone admits she was wrong to deny PPE firm links but says she's a scapegoat
The Scottish businesswoman has spoken out in new documentary
Glasgow businesswoman Michelle Mone has admitted she was wrong to publicly deny her links to a PPE firm that landed lucrative government contracts during the Covid pandemic.
The baroness, whose home was raided last year as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) inquiry into the firm PPE Medpro, claimed the government was aware of her financial ties when it handed out the contracts.
After lobbying from the Tory politician, PPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth £203m to supply facemasks and medical gowns between May and June 2020 under a controversial “VIP lane” for suppliers.
Lawyers for Baroness Mone – who made her fortune in lingerie - and her husband Doug Barrowman emphatically denied their involvement with PPE Medpro and claimed it was “inaccurate, misleading and defamatory” to suggest otherwise.
Leaked HSBC documents last year showed Mr Barrowman was paid at least £65 million from PPE Medpro’s profits, of which £29 million was transferred to an offshore trust for which Baroness Mone and her children benefit.
"I made an error in what I said"
The baroness now admits she was incorrect to deny any involvement to the media – but claims the idea that she was not honest with officials is “100 per cent a lie”.
“I made an error in what I said to the press. I regret not saying to the press straight away, ‘Yes, I am involved.’ And the government knew I was involved,” she said.
Speaking for the first time in a new YouTube documentary funded by PPE Medpro, she claims: “We will win because we have done nothing wrong… It’s cruel and it’s nasty, but we will win.
“I think everyone feels that because we have been silent that we are guilty. The whole thing has been so scary, but you just don’t know what to do.
“Doug and I look at one another. We think, ‘No, today we are going to come out and we are going to respond to them and respond to that message that they said, you know, ‘put her in jail, orange jumpsuits, and we’re going to throw acid over her’ and everything else.'”
She was made a Conservative peer in 2015 by former Prime Minister David Cameron.