A PPE company linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone supplied faulty surgical gowns
The High Court has heard that a PPE firm linked to Conservative peer and millionaire entrepreneur Michelle Mone should pay back £122 million for breaching a government covid contract.
During the pandemic, PPE Medpro, a company owned by Mone’s husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, was awarded £200 million in government contracts to supply personal protective equipment (PPE).
For one contract, PPE Medpro supplied 25 million surgical gowns.
The Department for Health and Social (DHSC) is suing PPE Medpro, which is owned by Mone’s husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, for supplying gowns which their lawyers say were ‘faulty’ as they were not sterile.
Mone approached ministers, Michael Gove and Theodore Agnew to recommend her husband’s firm for the contracts.
Court documents from May this year state that the gowns were delivered to the UK in 72 lots between August and October 2020, with £121,999,219.20 paid to PPE Medpro between July and August that year.
DHSC rejected the gowns in December 2020 and told PPE Medpro it would have to repay the money, but this has yet to occur. Meanwhile, the gowns remain in storage, unable to be used.
Under the terms of the contract, Paul Stanley KC for the DHSC said that 99.9% of the gowns were required to be sterile, and the contract also specified that PPE Medpro must use a “validated process” for sterilisation. However, this didn’t happen.
A PPE Medpro spokesperson said the company “categorically denies breaching its obligations” and will “robustly defend” the claim.
The trial is due to last five weeks, with a judgement expected in writing at a later date.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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