Mone PPE company at risk of being shut down

A PPE supplier with links to Baroness Mone is at risk of being shut down after it was hit with a winding-up petition from its former lawyers.

Lewis Silkin has launched a legal claim against PPE Medpro, the company that was awarded contracts during the pandemic and is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The City company previously represented PPE Medpro in a dispute with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care over defective Covid equipment. In that case, PPE Medpro has been accused of an alleged breach of contract over claims it provided products that were unfit for purpose, although the company has said it would “rigorously” defend the allegations.

The winding-up petition was filed against PPE Medpro in the High Court on Thursday, with the company now represented by Grosvenor Law.

Lady Mone has been embroiled in controversy after admitting late last year that she had lied to the press over her links to PPE Medpro.

In total, the company received government PPE contracts worth more than £200m to supply surgical masks and gowns.

This came after Lady Mone recommended the business to ministers through a so-called VIP lane, although she failed to disclose her interest publicly to the House of Lords despite standing to gain a potential £60m profit. The first contract worth £81m was granted in May 2020 to supply 210m face masks. A second worth £122m followed a month later to supply surgical gowns.

However, millions of the gowns provided by PPE Medpro were never used, and the Government is suing the company for £122m plus costs for “breach of contract and unjust enrichment”.

Lady Mone, who remains on a leave of absence from the House of Lords, has said that she and her husband Doug Barrowman have been subjected to a “kangaroo court”.

Last December, she also said she was being “treated like Pablo Escobar”, the Colombian drug lord, after her bank accounts were frozen amid an NCA fraud investigation.

Restrictions over assets applied to a six-bedroom townhouse in Belgravia and a country estate in the Isle of Man.

Sources close to the couple have said they are being used as scapegoats by the Government to divert attention away from its own failure to run the PPE procurement process properly.

Lady Mone was appointed to the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2015, and described at the time as a “leading” lingerie entrepreneur after she founded the Ultimo brand.

The “VIP lane” used by Lady Mone is being investigated as part of the Covid Inquiry. Lady Mone’s representatives were contacted for comment.

A City firm has launched a legal claim against a company with links to Baroness Mone