Tory peer Michelle Mone's firm 'should repay £121m over faulty Covid gowns'

A COMPANY linked to Scots peer Michelle Mone should pay back more than £121million for breaching a Government contract for surgical gowns during the pandemic, the High Court has heard.

- By Callum Parke and Danny Halpin

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is suing PPE Medpro over the deal for 25 million gowns, with lawyers for the Government telling the court they were "faulty" as they were not sterile.

The consortium led by Doug Barrowman, Baroness Mone's husband, was awarded contracts by the Conservative administration to supply PPE during Covid, after she recommended it to ministers. Both have denied wrongdoing.

The Government is seeking to recover the costs of the contract, as well as the costs of transporting and storing the items, which amount to an additional £8,648,691.

PPE Medpro said it "categorically denies" any wrongdoing and its lawyers claimed the company has been "singled out for unfair treatment".

Paul Stanley KC, for the DHSC, said: "This case is simply about whether 25 million surgical gowns provided by PPE Medpro were faulty. It is, in short, a technical case about detailed legal and industry standards that apply to sterile gowns."