Michelle Mone: Crime agency ‘looking into £3m sent to peer’s bank account’

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is reportedly examining a £3m payment made to Michelle Mone’s bank account as part of its probe into the scandal surrounding PPE contracts.

It follows the peer’s admission that she lied by denying links to PPE Medpro – a consortium led by her husband Doug Barrowman which made millions from personal protective equipment deals during the Covid crisis.

The firm is being investigated by the NCA for suspected offences related to contracts with the Conservative government to supply gowns and face masks worth over £200m.

The NCA is scrutinising a £3m payment made into Baroness Mone’s Coutts bank account as part of the official investigation, according to the Sunday Times.

The newspaper reported that it was of interest because it arrived after £65m in PPE Medpro profits were transferred to trusts and accounts linked to Mr Barrowman.

Ms Mone has publicly claimed that she is only an indirect beneficiary of PPE Medpro’s profits during the pandemic.

The bra tycoon recently told a YouTube documentary: “I am his wife and I may indirectly benefit, but that’s just like all other families around that are married. That’s just it, that is not my money; I don’t have that money, it’s not my money.”

The peer made similar comments in her BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg “It’s my husband’s money. It’s his money. It’s not my money and it’s not my children’s,” she said.

Baroness Mone told the host: “I’m saying to you that I didn’t receive that cash. That cash is not my cash, that cash is my husband’s cash, we are married. If one day, God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children, so yes, of course.”

Aside from the NCA probe, the government last December issued breach of contract proceedings against PPE Medpro over the 2020 deal for sterile gowns. The company is defending the legal action.

Lady Mone has hit back at the Tory government in the ongoing row – insisting ministers knew about her involvement in the lucrative Covid contracts from the beginning.

“I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the government and the NHS in my dealings with them. They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning,” she tweeted on X earlier this month.

The lingerie entrepreneur has sought to criticise Michael Gove and other Tory ministers in the row – saying she contacted the Mr Gove in his role as Cabinet Office minister at the start of the pandemic with the offer to help.

The peer also accused Mr Gove and the top health department official Sir Chris Wormald of overseeing a “huge waste in PPE contracts”. She said they both “need to be held to account”.

However, former Tory health minister Lord Bethell said she “wasn’t ‘honest’ about her financial interest to me”. Mr Gove told reporters he has been cooperating with the NCA investigation.

Lady Mone was made a Conservative peer under former PM David Cameron, but the Tory party has said she is no longer a member and does not hold the whip in the House of Lords.

The entrepreneur, who took a leave of absence from parliament last year, is facing calls to be barred from the Lords. And Rishi Sunak has said the government was taking the case against PPE Medro “incredibly seriously”.

Baroness Mone has been approached for comment on the Sunday Times’ report. The NCA declined to comment when asked about the claim it was looking into a £3m payment.

A spokesperson for the agency has previously said: “The NCA can confirm its International Corruption Unit opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.”