The High Court has ordered PPE Medpro, a company linked to former Tory peer Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman, to repay £122m for supplying defective surgical gowns to the NHS during the pandemic. However, the company has been placed into insolvency, raising doubts about whether taxpayers will ever recover the funds.
The judgment, delivered by Mrs Justice Cockerill, found that the 25 million sterile surgical gowns supplied under a contract awarded via the government's VIP lane in June 2020 were defective. The gowns were rejected in September 2020 due to invalid labels and lack of certification for sterility. The court ordered repayment by 15 October.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves hailed the ruling as a victory for the government's efforts to recover wasted public money from the Covid crisis. She posted on X: 'We want our money back. We are getting our money back. And it will go where it belongs – in our schools, NHS and communities.'
However, PPE Medpro Ltd was put into insolvency on 30 September, the day before the judgment, with administrators appointed. The company has few assets, making repayment unlikely. Barrowman has criticised the judgment as a 'white wash of the facts', while Mone accused Reeves of inflammatory language. A spokesperson for the couple said on Friday that the 'consortium' was prepared to discuss a possible settlement with the government.
Barrowman received at least £65m from PPE Medpro's profits, with £29m transferred to a trust for Mone and her children. The couple have owned luxury assets including yachts and a private jet. The government's ability to reclaim the £122m remains uncertain, as the judgment targets a now-insolvent company rather than the individuals personally.
