BARONESS Michelle Mone has said she stands to benefit from a contract between the UK Government and PPE firm Medpro in her first major broadcast interview since the scandal emerged.
The Conservative peer and Ultimo bra tycoon faced questions over the controversy surrounding “VIP lane” contracts during the coronavirus pandemic when she appeared on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme on Sunday.
It comes after she conceded she made an “error” in publicly denying her links to the firm, which is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
PPE Medpro was awarded Government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply personal protective equipment after she recommended it to ministers.
Mone admitted she is a beneficiary of her husband Doug Barrowman’s financial trusts, which hold around £60m of profit from the deal.
Barrowman admitted to the BBC that they profited and that there was "a good return for the risk involved".
Mone insisted the "only error" she had made was lying to the press about her and her family's involvement, but insisted it was "not a crime".
The couple claimed they have been made “scapegoats” for the UK government’s wider failings over PPE.
Mone has previously repeatedly denied that she had profited from the deal, which she first discussed with government ministers including Michael Gove.
It was during her chat with the BBC that she conceded to making repeated untruthful statements in relation to the matter.
Mone told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “If one day, if God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children, so yes, of course.”
Mone said she did not mean to fool anyone, despite admitting the couple misled the press about their involvement.
“I did make an error in saying to the press that I wasn’t involved,” she said.
“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.”
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has since issued breach of contract proceedings over the 2020 deal on the supply of gowns.
Millions of gowns supplied by the company were never used by health services.
The couple insisted the gowns were supplied under the terms of the contract.
Mone, who was interviewed alongside her husband Barrowman, recently told a YouTube documentary that they both would be cleared, arguing they have “done nothing wrong”.
The film, part of a public fightback, is believed to have been funded by PPE Medpro.
Mone, who was made a peer by David Cameron, recently made a Lord so he could take on the role of Foreign Secretary, in 2015, has argued she is being used as a scapegoat by the Government for its own Covid failings.
When it was put to Mone that the "truth had to be dragged out" of her by Kuenssberg, she replied: "Not really Laura, the only error I have made is I said to the press that I wasn’t involved."
Mone then said she didn't believe the couple had a "case to answer" and insisted they had not done anything wrong.
She said: “I don’t honestly see there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong.
“Doug and the consortium have simply delivered a contract, a delivery contract of goods.”
The peer argued that she was protecting her family from the press, taking issue with the scrutiny she came under from journalists after joining the House of Lords.
"That’s not a crime," she repeated, after admitting to lying to journalists.
"The press have got nothing to do with my family, I was protecting my family."
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden (below) was asked about Mone's comments on Sunday and the couple's claims that they were being made "scapegoats" by the Government.
“I don’t accept that," he said.
“What I would say is that there is an ongoing investigation by both the National Crime Agency and, indeed, the Department of Health is suing the company concerned in civil litigation.
“So, there’s a limit to what I can say, but I don’t recognise that.”
It comes as two experts who appeared in the film told The Sunday Times that they were unaware in advance of the intended focus of the documentary or its funding.
Former detective-turned-investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas, who presented and produced, the documentary, said: “For the Sunday Times to suggest contributors were duped is totally refuted , un- evidenced and totally incorrect & unfair reporting.
“Both individuals have said they would have said exactly the same had they known the programme was eventually funded by PPE Medpro.”
