The National Crime Agency is probing a “suspicious” £3million payment said to have been made into one of the peer’s UK bank accounts as part of their probe into the affairs of her husband Doug Barrowman’s company, PPE Medpro.
But in a personal statement issued yesterday morning Mr Barrowman, 58, claimed his family have been “treated as a punchbag” for the “lamentable failures” by ministers when procuring PPE during the pandemic.
In a statement published by Lady Mone on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Barrowman said it “suits the agenda” of the UK Government to “scapegoat” him and his wife.
Ultimo lingerie founder Lady Mone has admitted she lied when she denied having connections to the company, which was awarded contracts worth more than £200million to supply gowns and face masks – despite having no previous experience.
The lingerie entrepreneur stands to benefit from its £60million in profits.
Mr Barrowman said the focus should be on failures by the Department of Health and Social Care during its PPE procurement, complaining he and his wife are “being hung out to dry to distract attention from Government incompetency”.
Despite their PPE being deemed unusable, he added: “Our pricing was so competitive that we saved the UK Govt at least £100million compared to the competition at the time”.
He also branded it “simply unacceptable” that the UK Covid-19 Inquiry is not scheduled to review pandemic PPE procurement until 2025 – after a general election.
He said: “How on Earth did the UK Government manage to purchase five years of PPE when it was supposed to build up four months of stock?”
The Government last December issued breach of contract proceedings against PPE Medpro over the 2020 deal for sterile gowns.
The company is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency into suspected criminal offences in the procurement of PPE contracts.
A DHSC spokesman said: “We do not comment on ongoing legal cases.”
Last month Mr Barrowman and Lady Mone gave an interview to the BBC – their first since the scandal broke. Lady Mone, currently on a leave of absence from Parliament, remained unrepentant, telling host Laura Kuenssberg: “I don’t honestly see there is a case to answer. I can’t see what we have done wrong.”
The fresh statement from Mr Barrowman, appears to have been prompted by the imminent publication of an article by Dan Neidle, a tax lawyer whose investigation into the financial affairs of Nadhim Zahawi saw the MP sacked as Conservative Party chairman.
Mr Neidle said Mr Barrowman had not addressed in his statement that he had “lied about his connection to PPE Medpro”. Lawyers for the couple had initially told the press they had “no role or function in PPE Medpro”.
