LETTER FROM LONDON
Michelle Mone (centre) at the House of Lords, London June 21, 2017. STEFAN ROUSSEAU/AFP
It’s not a Christmas tale but a tens of millions of pound affair that’s making headlines in the UK media this Christmas season. An emblematic story of executive negligence during the pandemic that is sweeping Rishi Sunak’s government nearly three years after the fact.
At the center of this scandal is Michelle Mone, 51, a member of the House of Lords with an atypical profile, a businesswoman of very humble origins, with candor. According to the Guardian, which has been investigating for several months, this Conservative Party member is suspected of pocketing £29million in public money thanks to a deal awarded by the UK state at the start of the pandemic to supply masks and protective gowns masquerading as have proven useless. Ms Mone and her second husband, Douglas Barrowman, deny any connection with the company that benefited from the government contracts, PPE Med Pro.
At the end of March 2020, NHS (the public hospital) staff were sorely short of masks and gowns (or “PPE”, for personal protective equipment). Doctors and nurses are rationed to one mask a day, and some staff go so far as to use garbage bags as gowns. In an emergency, the Conservative government of Boris Johnson significantly relaxes the conditions for awarding tenders and the Ministry of Health sets up a “VIP Line”, a priority list of recommended companies by ministers, MPs or members of the House of Lords, to speed up the recruitment of suppliers.
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Private jet, yacht, real estate…
On 8 May 2020, Michelle Mone used her private email address to contact Conservative Theodore Agnew, a fellow House of Lords, and Minister Michael Gove, a member of Boris Johnson’s cabinet. She tells them that she can provide them with “thank you” PEPs [ses] teams in Hong Kong,” says the Guardian. Michelle Mone gets a mysterious company, PPE Medpro, added to the VIP list. A few weeks later, this company won two large public contracts. One of £80.85m to supply 210m masks and the other of £122m to supply 25m sterile gowns.
These are never used as they failed the Ministry of Health safety tests. However, PPE company MedPro is making an impressive profit, much of which will go to Mr Barrowman, according to documents seen at the HSBC bank by the Guardian and the Financial Times. Ms Mone’s husband will receive at least £65million from Medpro PPE in September 2020 through the Warren Trust, of which he is a beneficiary. According to HSBC documents, part of PPE MedPro’s profits – 29 million – will be paid to an offshore trust whose beneficiaries are Ms Mone and their three children.
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