TWO successful women living the high life and partying together, Michelle Mone and Carol Vorderman were the best of pals.
But not any more. On Wednesday the former Countdown star posted “yes at last” on Instagram after a court ordered the bra entrepreneur and her billionaire husband Doug Barrowman to pay back £122million for supplying unusable gowns to the NHS.
Michelle, who is a member of the House of Lords, at The State Opening of Parliament in 2019[/caption]
It is doubtless a feeling shared by many taxpayers who desperately want to see some of the £10billion wasted on dodgy Personal Protective Equipment during Covid clawed back.
Carol, 64, previously demanded Baroness Mone of Mayfair be “jailed” and called her a “liar” on daytime TV.
It remains to be seen whether Mone, 53, or Barrowman, 60, will do time or return the money.
They are still being investigated by the National Crime Agency over the way the company PPE Medpro acquired the contract to supply 25 million sterile gowns in June 2020.
But experts fear that by declaring bankruptcy, the firm’s owners won’t have to cough up what it owes.
‘Grifting monster’
That’s despite Mone and Barrowman having owned six homes, a £10million yacht called Lady M, a Cessna private jet and regularly posted photos of their exotic holidays.
What is in little doubt from the High Court ruling is that Mone, who is a member of the House of Lords, has misled the public about her involvement in the PPE scandal.
Having first denied any link to Medpro, she then sought to downplay her connection a year later saying “it’s not my money” about the £60million the firm made from its government contract.
Mrs Justice Cockerill called Mone as the “big gun” who pressured officials into going ahead with the deal.
And she says that Medpro “trumpeted” the “years of experience” of Barrowman in the field at this “well-established firm” even though it was only incorporated a month before the contract was awarded.
It is not the first time Mone’s attitude to the truth has seemed as elastic as her firm’s lingerie.
During her incredible rise from a Glasgow tenement, she claimed her Ultimo bra was worn by Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, which the movie’s costume designer denied.
The Scottish businesswoman also sold diet pills that were described as “useless”, bizarrely said that Albert Einstein had lived in her Glasgow townhouse and was accused of overinflating Ultimo’s value.
And Carol isn’t the only showbiz pal to have fallen out with Mone.
Rock star Rod Stewart helped promote her business but branded her a manipulative cow” after she replaced his wife Penny Lancaster with his ex Rachel Hunter as an Ultimo model.
One former work colleague told The Sun: “Michelle was a grifting monster with the ambition of Atilla the Hun.”
This week’s court ruling does seem to support the notion that the Baroness has a win-at-all-costs attitude.
Michelle with former husband Michael and Rod Stewart & Penny Lancaster[/caption]
When Covid hit the UK in early 2020, the Government didn’t have enough equipment to protect front line health workers.
With the NHS competing against other nations for dwindling supplies, the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock put together a VIP lane for companies wishing to win contracts to supply PPE.
In May that year, PPE Medpro was set up by Barrowman, a chartered accountant whose key businesses had been tax avoidance schemes and supplying cables.
Tory peer Mone lobbied the Department of Health and Social Care to give her husband’s firm the crucial contract which was supposed to help protect lives.
In her ruling, Mrs Justice Cockerill said: “Medpro was presenting itself to DHSC (Depatment of Health and Social Care) as a worthy entrant into the fast lane for approval as a supplier and aiming to land contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds of public money. It said repeatedly that it had experience.”
This case was never about gowns or money. It has always been about politics and blame-shifting, a way to cover up the Government’s disastrous £10bn PPE write-off
Michelle Mone
Amid concerns about a conflict of interest, Mone called the Cabinet Office to push it through — and was said to have been “threatening further escalation” if it didn’t happen.
Alarm bells should have sounded, because Barrowman’s tax avoidance schemes had been criticised in 2017 and Mone’s diet pill TrimSecrets had been described by the British Dietetic Association as “snake oil” in 2015.
Many thought Prime Minister David Cameron was mad to make her a baroness with such a reputation.
Her business acumen appeared to be overstated, as Ultimo was making a loss when it was sold in 2014.
But PPE Medpro won the contract — and when the gowns arrived in the UK from a factory in China, they did not have sufficient proof that they were sterile, which meant the NHS didn’t want to risk using them.
Later tests on a sample 140 gowns showed that 103 of them had not been sterilised.
That didn’t stop Mone enjoying a sumptuous wedding with second husband Barrowman in November 2020 on the Isle of Man.
The couple cut a seven-tier cake topped with a gold D and M and served their guests lobster and champagne.
When rumours emerged a month later that Barrowman and Mone were behind PPE Medpro, both denied it and got their lawyers to threaten legal action.
Three years later, the pair admitted they benefited financially from the PPE contract.
Mone blamed her legal team, claiming they had advised her to cover up the truth.
One of them, Jonathan Coad, denied that, saying: “I did not advise her to keep her association with PPE Medpro quiet.”
She even made a glossy video in an attempt to improve her public image.
That all crumbled when she told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg in December 2023 that there was nothing wrong with “lying” to the media.
Even after Monday’s ruling the pair refused to apologise — and Mone played the victim.
The only realistic chance of the Government recovering anything other than a tiny fraction of taxpayers’ money is to explore aggressive use of compensation orders
Sue Hawley, executive director of nonprofit Spotlight on Corruption
Last night she wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claiming “the machinery of the state is being deployed with the specific object of pursuing a vendetta against me.”
Both the Conservative and Labour parties have called on the Baroness to be removed from the Lords.
Earlier she had defended herself, posting on X: “This case was never about gowns or money.
“It has always been about politics and blame-shifting, a way to cover up the Government’s disastrous £10bn PPE write-off.
“Doug and I have been deliberately scapegoated and vilified.”
What the public is hoping is that the £10billion isn’t totally written off.
The judge ruled that PPE Medpro must repay the £122million by 4pm on October 15 — but the company put itself into administration this week with assets of only £660,000.
‘Suspected criminal offences’
As it is a limited company it will be difficult to get the rest of money, with Mone having placed £30million into a trust for her children.
Billionaire Barrowman, who owns a country estate on the Isle of Man and a fleet of flash cars, would appear to have the funds.
Sue Hawley, executive director of nonprofit Spotlight on Corruption, said: “The only realistic chance of the Government recovering anything other than a tiny fraction of taxpayers’ money is to explore aggressive use of compensation orders.”
Separate from this week’s civil action by the Government against MedPro is a criminal investigation.
In May 2021 the National Crime Agency started looking into “suspected criminal offences” committed in the procurement of the contracts.
As a result, £75million of Barrowman and Mone’s assets were frozen under a court order.
An NCA spokesperson said: “This ongoing investigation remains a priority for the agency.”
