THERE are calls for an investigation to be held into the source of a £50,000 donation accepted by the Conservative Party from a firm with links to Michelle Mone’s husband.
Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman are currently under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in connection with the awarding of government PPE contracts worth more than £200 million to Barrowman’s company PPE Medpro.
The contracts were awarded in June 2020 however some of the PPE provided was deemed unusable by the NHS, leading the Department of Health and Social Care to sue the company for compensation.
The couple deny any wrongdoing.
Now, it has emerged that the Conservative Party accepted a £50,000 donation from Pulse Accounting – a firm controlled by a close business associate of Barrowman’s – in October 2020.
An investigation by The Times found that at the time of the donation Pulse Accounting was owned by Daniel Clay, who also owned a stake in an accounting firm alongside Barrowman.
Records show that Clay bought Pulse Accounting from a businessman in July 2019.
However, the investigation found that an offshore company called Perree (PTC) Limited, which has links to Barrowman and is registered in the British Virgin Islands, bought the company years before Clay purchased it.
Perree (PTC) is also listed as the trustee on a £20 million property once occupied by Mone and Barrowman and also loaned money to PPE Medpro.
Election law speculates that donations must come from companies on the UK electoral roll which carry out their business in the UK.
However, Barrowman is a resident of the Isle of Man and therefore cannot make donations in his own name.
Indeed, a £2400 donation offered by Barrowman was once rejected on these grounds.
As such, he has previously used UK companies to make donations.
But despite donating £50,000 in October 2020, Pulse Accounting’s accounts show that it had assets of just £49,000 at the end of that year.
“The donation is very large for a company like this with no substantial assets or turnover, and one with no history of political donations,” said Gavin Millar KC.
“There are grounds to investigate whether this was really the money of Mr Barrowman or one of his offshore companies.
“Not least of all the fact that a lucrative government contract had just been handed to his PPE Medpro company.
“A UK company can be a permissible donor to a political party if it carries on business here.
“But even if this requirement is met it must give its own money, not the money of a hidden, impermissible donor.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “All reportable donations are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law.
“Fundraising is a legitimate part of the democratic process. The alternative is taxpayer-funding of political campaigning, which would mean less money for frontline services like schools and hospitals.”
Earlier this month a 46-year-old was arrested as part of the NCA's investigation into PPE Medpro.
