View image in fullscreen Michelle Mone and Douglas Barrowman attending an event at Guildhall in London in 2017. The former owner of a lingerie business, she has proven to be one of the party’s most high-profile and controversial peers. David Cameron, who was himself embroiled in a lobbying scandal last year, was the Conservative leader who appointed Mone the baroness of Mayfair in 2015. The controversy over Mone and PPE Medpro threatens to embroil the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who has pledged to make “integrity and accountability” pillars of his leadership. At the time, lawyers for PPE Medpro declined to comment on the NCA investigation. In April this year, NCA officers searched several addresses, including the mansion Mone and Barrowman occupy in the Isle of Man. Separately, PPE Medpro has become the subject of a potential fraud investigation by the National Crime Agency. However, the Guardian’s latest revelation – that the peer and her husband secretly amassed an offshore fortune on the back of PPE Medpro profits – could prove the most consequential for Mone, who has already been placed under investigation by the House of Lords commissioner for standards. The Guardian has previously reported how those claims seem to be at odds with documents appearing to show the couple were secretly involved in PPE Medpro’s business, and emails suggesting Mone repeatedly lobbied the government on its behalf during the nine-month period after she helped secure its place in the VIP lane. PPE Medpro has repeatedly refused to identify its mystery backers, but denied it was awarded contracts because of “company or personal connections” to the UK government or Conservative party. Mone, 51, and Barrowman, 57, have over the last two years repeatedly insisted they had no “involvement” in PPE Medpro, and “no role” in the process through which the company was awarded its government contracts. He added: “For the time being we are also instructed to say that there is much inaccuracy in the portrayal of the alleged ‘facts’ and a number of them are completely wrong.” A lawyer for Mone said: “There are a number of reasons why our client cannot comment on these issues and she is under no duty to do so.”Ī lawyer who represents both Barrowman and PPE Medpro said that a continuing investigation limited what his clients were able to say on these matters. That was just five months after Mone helped PPE Medpro secure contracts to supply masks and sterile gowns for use in the NHS.Ĭontacted about the new disclosures, HSBC said it was unable to comment, even to confirm if the couple had been clients. View image in fullscreen Michelle Mone being sworn into the House of Lords as Baroness Mone of Mayfair in 2015. ![]() In October 2020, the documents add, Barrowman transferred to the trust £28.8m originating from PPE Medpro profits. The ultimate recipients of the funds, the documents indicate, include the Isle of Man trust that was set up to benefit Mone, who was Barrowman’s fiancee at the time, and her children. ![]() ![]() They state that Mone’s husband, the Isle of Man-based financier Douglas Barrowman, was paid at least £65m in profits from PPE Medpro, and then distributed the funds through a series of offshore accounts, trusts and companies. ![]() The leaked documents, which were produced by the bank HSBC, appear to contradict that statement. Documents seen by the Guardian indicate tens of millions of pounds of PPE Medpro’s profits were later transferred to a secret offshore trust of which Mone and her adult children were the beneficiaries.Īsked by the Guardian last year why Mone did not include PPE Medpro in her House of Lords register of financial interests, her lawyer replied: “Baroness Mone did not declare any interest as she did not benefit financially and was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity.”
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