Tory Peer-Linked Firm Supplied Unsafe Gowns During COVID, Health Department Alleges

Article

The controversial firm linked to a Tory peer supplied 25 million protective gowns that were unusable and failed safety tests during the pandemic in 2020, the UK’s health department alleged in a lawsuit seeking to recover £133 million ($160 million).

“PPE Medpro has therefore been unjustly enriched at Department of Health and Social Care’s expense and is liprotective gownsable to repay the price,” its lawyers said in a Dec. 19 court filing uploaded recently on the court’s website. The government is seeking the return of about £122 million it paid to PPE Medpro, along with over £10 million for the cost of storing and disposing the unusable gowns.

British businesswoman Baroness Michelle Mone referred PPE Medpro for a contract which it secured in July 2020, just two months after it was incorporated as a company, according to government records.

Mone, who is also a Conservative peer, and her children received £29 million from the profits of a PPE Medpro’s business paid into a offshore trust, the Guardian reported in November. Her lawyer told the newspaper at the time she didn’t declare any interest in Medpro “as she did not benefit financially and was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity.”

‘Kangaroo Court’

Asked about the Dec. 19 filing, Mone’s private office said in an email that her legal team is dealing with a “political witch-hunt situation which is being played out in a kangaroo court.” She said that the “The Guardian have been put on legal notice,” when asked about the article.

The case filed in the UK High Court puts the spotlight back on close to 400 contracts worth £7.9 billion that were awarded through new, sometimes faster procurement routes in 2020. About a third of these were given to suppliers referred by government officials, ministers and parliamentarians among others.

PPE Medpro didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Earlier, it denied all allegations and said the case will expose the health department’s incompetence as it “vastly over ordered” protective kits, which expired over time.

The Health Department said it cannot comment on matters that are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.