The UK government has launched legal proceedings against a firm which won millions of pounds worth of COVID-19 contracts allegedly with the help of a former Conservative member of the House of Lords.
Baroness Michelle Mone was stripped of her Conservative Party whip earlier this month after being accused of having profited personally from PPE Medpro, which won contracts worth £200 million ($244 million) in personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said on Dec. 19 that it had issued breach of contract proceedings over a 2020 deal on the supply of sterile gowns.
A DHSC spokesman said: “We can confirm we have commenced legal proceedings in the High Court against PPE Medpro Limited for breach of contract regarding gowns delivered under a contract dated June 26, 2020.
“We do not comment on matters that are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.”
But PPE Medpro said the case would be “rigorously defended” and accused DHSC of a “cynical attempt to recover money from suppliers” who acted in good faith.
A statement issued by the firm said: “PPE Medpro will demonstrate to the courts that we supplied our gowns to the correct specification, on time, and at a highly competitive price.
Media Allegations
According to UK media reports, Mone recommended PPE Medpro to ministers at the beginning of the pandemic. A report in The Guardian newspaper accused the peer and her children of secretly receiving £29 million ($35 million) originating from the profits of the PPE firm.But Mone has consistently denied any “role or function” in the company, and her lawyers have previously said she is “not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity.”
Mone took a leave of absence from the House of Lords on Dec. 6. Her office said that she wanted to “clear her name” of the allegations that had been “unjustly levelled against her.”
It means Mone, who was made a life peer by then-Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015 after selling an 80 percent stake in her Ultimo lingerie company, would no longer attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings, and will not be able to claim any allowance.
Downing Street said at the time that her decision meant she automatically lost the Tory whip.
The standards watchdog in the House of Lords is investigating Mone over her alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro, though this has been paused “while the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation.”
‘Shoddy Contracts’
The government has come under fire for the use of “VIP lanes” to procure PPE, whereby preferential treatment for public contracts can be given to organisations recommended by MPs and peers.The main opposition Labour Party has also accused the government of spending public money “carelessly” in “shoddy contracts.”
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “After nearly a year of hiding behind a mediation process with a company linked to one of their own peers, Conservative ministers have finally been shamed into action to recover taxpayers’ money after damning revelations, public outcry, and Labour pressure.
“Time will now tell if the shoddy contracts they drew up are sufficiently robust to retrieve the public money they carelessly handed over.”
PPE Medpro claimed DHSC was fighting over “contract technicalities” such as whether gowns were single or double-bagged because it had “vastly over-ordered” protective equipment.
The firm said in its statement: “Over a two-month period, July through to end of August 2020, PPE Medpro supplied DHSC with 25 million sterile gowns. The gowns were manufactured to the correct quality, standards and specification set out in the contract, delivered on time and at a price that was 50 percent of what DHSC had been paying at the time.”
But “by the end of 2020 it was clear that DHSC has vastly over ordered and held five years supply of PPE across the seven major categories including gowns” and because of limited lifespans for products “it was clear that the DHSC would never be able to use all the PPE they procured.”
“Consultants were then brought in to pick over all the contracts and fight product not on quality but on contract technicalities that were never envisaged at the time of contract. For example, PPE Medpro’s contract never specified double bagging of gowns. Yet it became clear in late 2020 that all the gown manufacturers who had correctly produced single bagged gowns were being unfairly challenged by DHSC.”
