Baroness Michelle Mone has – finally – admitted to ‘lying’ to the press that she stands to benefit from controversial contracts between the government and a PPE firm during the pandemic.
The Conservative peer and Ultimo lingerie founder previously conceded she made an ‘error’ in denying her links to Medpro, led by her husband, Doug Barrowman.
The couple were accused of lobbying Westminster during the pandemic resulting in the company receiving £200 million in taxpayer-funded contracts in the height of the Covid crisis.
The 52-year-old admitted to lying – over and over again – about being a beneficiary of her husband’s financial trusts, which hold some £60 million of profit from the deal.
But in her first major broadcast interview since the scandal emerged, she insisted that lying to the media is ‘not a crime’.
Instead, she said that her and Mr Barrowman have been made ‘scapegoats’ for the government’s wider failings over personal protective equipment.
Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said ‘of course’ she stands to gain, adding: ‘If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children.’
Lady Mone also claimed she was not trying to ‘pull the wool’ over anyone’s eyes.
‘I did make an error in saying to the press that I wasn’t involved,’ she added.
‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, and I regret and I’m sorry for not saying straight out, yes, I am involved.’
Millions of gowns supplied by Medpro were never used by health services and the Department of Health is still seeking to claw back some of the money.
But the couple insists the gowns were supplied in accordance with the contract.
Meanwhile, Mr Barrowman alleged that he was asked by a government official if he ‘would pay more money for the National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation to be called off’.
He said: ‘We get to November 2022, and I attend this negotiation, as opposed to a mediation.
‘It’s very, very clear that, you know, they’re interested in settling but they want a sum of money that, quite honestly, we are not of a mind to pay.
‘So, I then have a separate meeting. And this individual asked me would I pay more for the other matter to go away.
‘I was speechless, I didn’t quite understand what he meant by that, because the only other matter on the table was the NCA investigation which had commenced in, as far as we were aware, April 2022.
‘I was absolutely gobsmacked. I think it raises very serious questions as to what that official meant, what he was saying.’
Mr Barrowman did not reveal the name of the government official who allegedly asked him for the money.
Responding to the claims, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said he would be ‘very surprised’ if it turns out to be true.
He said: ‘I simply don’t recognise that but again let’s wait and see.
‘There’s a proper process for this to go through, which is in relation to a civil case and a criminal case.