Michelle Mone-linked PPE agency liquidated and unlikely to repay £148m | EUROtoday

The UK Government is unlikely to see many of the £148m is it owed by a defective PPE provider linked to Baroness Michelle Mone after the corporate was wound up.

PPE Medpro, a consortium run by Mone’s husband Douglas Barrowman, was positioned into liquidation on the Insolvency and Companies Court on Thursday.

It follows a High Court ruling in October, which discovered that the agency breached a contract to provide 25 million surgical robes through the Covid pandemic.

PPE Medpro filed for administration in September, a day earlier than the order to pay. HM Revenue & Customs is individually owed £39m in tax.

Records filed by PPE Medpro’s directors have revealed it solely had round £600,000 out there to pay unsecured collectors.

At the Insolvency and Companies Court, barristers for the three joint directors requested for the agency to be saved in administration to repay cash owed.

But legal professionals for the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) mentioned PPE Medpro was was “hopelessly insolvent” and requested for the agency to be wound up.

Despite the order to pay again the cash, as an unsecured creditor it is unlikely the DHSC will recuperate the tens of millions of kilos owed.

In his ruling, Judge Sebastian Prentis positioned the corporate into liquidation.

He mentioned: “The department’s debt is very large indeed and it is a debt which has been incurred through the supply of defective equipment at a time of national crisis.”

Judge Prentis mentioned that there could be “questions of how this debt may be recovered” from the agency, including that there was “very little” cash left.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting mentioned the DHSC wouldn’t relaxation till it had received again the “hard-earned taxpayer money paid to rogue operators like PPE Medpro”.

He added: “During the pandemic, when the whole country was making huge sacrifices, separated from family and loved ones, PPE Medpro supplied defective PPE and unfairly profited.

“We will maintain going after PPE Medpro with all the pieces we have got to get these funds again the place they belong – in our NHS.”

PPE Medpro was awarded lucrative contracts worth £122m to supply medical gowns to the NHS during the pandemic.

It gained access to the government’s VIP lane to fast-track approved suppliers.

However, the equipment has been in storage since 2020 after the company failed to prove it was correctly sterilised.

Mone described the October court ruling as “nothing lower than an institution win for the federal government in a case that was too large to lose”.

She was made a peer by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, but took a leave of absence and lost the Tory whip following the PPE revelations.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Kemi Badenoch have both urged the Baroness to depart the Lords altogether.

The UK government’s insolvency service confirmed that an officer had been appointed to manage PPE Medpro’s liquidation.

A spokesperson said: “As with all circumstances of this nature, they may examine the reason for the corporate’s failure and conduct of administrators.

“Interpath Advisory were appointed joint liquidators of the company. They will wind up the company’s affairs in accordance with their statutory duties.”