Michelle Mone told government she wouldn’t financially benefit from PPE firm

Conservative peer Michelle Mone assured the government that she was not entitled to “any financial benefit whatsoever” from a PPE company, five months before £29m of its profits were awarded to her.

Leaked emails seen by The Guardian revealed that a civil servant in the cabinet office asked Mone to make a declaration that she had no conflict of interest with PPE Medpro, who she had recommended to ministers in 2020 to supply PPE equipment on behalf of the government.

Mone stated that she had “no conflicts whatsoever” and that she was not “entitled to any financial remuneration or financial benefit whatsoever”.

The civil servant then asked for clarification about the involvement of Mone’s husband, the Isle of Man-based financial services businessman Doug Barrowman. She replied that “Doug is a very philanthropic individual” who “wanted to help the NHS” and was negotiating to lower the prices the government was paying for PPE.

Last month, Mone and her husband had their assets frozen by the Crown Prosecution Service that are investigating the awarding of government PPE contracts during the pandemic that involved Medpro.

Mone admitted in December 2023 that she lied when she'd previously denied any links to Medpro, which is a consortium led by her husband, Doug Barrowman. The company were awarded over £200m in government contracts. Mone's family will benefit from the £60m profits the company has made.

Mone was awarded a peership in 2015, a move which a Tory MP claimed "breached process" in an attack on David Cameron.