Mone admits lying to media over links to firm in PPE deals scandal

Peer defends repeated denials over Guardian stories as not a crime’

- David Conn

The former Conservative peer Michelle Mone has admitted that she lied when she denied repeatedly having been involved with a company that made millions of pounds in profits from UK government PPE deals during the pandemic.

Mone said she “wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes” and had not told the truth about her involvement to protect her family from press attention. When it was put to her that she had admitted lying to the press, Mone replied: “That’s not a crime.”

Guardian investigations found Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were involved with PPE Medpro, the company awarded contracts worth £203m in May and June 2020 after she had approached ministers, including Michael Gove, with an offer to supply PPE.

The National Crime Agency is conducting an investigation into alleged criminal offenses in the procurement of the contracts by the company.

Responding to Mone’s interview, the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Our message to those people who sought to use the pandemic to get rich quick [is]: we want our money back.” In a fi lm uploaded to YouTube last week, paid for by PPE Medpro and featuring the fi rst public interviews with Mone and Barrowman since the NCA began its investigation, the fi lm’s presenter, Mark Williams-Thomas, said the couple were facing criminal allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery. They both deny wrongdoing.