A Manipulative Cow

Mark McLaughlin writes:

Baroness Mone exploited her political connections “to sell duff PPE at enormous profit” and then lied about it, according to a TV documentary.

The lingerie entrepreneur and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, have had £75 million of assets frozen as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into alleged PPE fraud.

Channel 5 will screen a documentary at 9pm on Monday chronicling Mone’s “stratospheric rise and scandalous fall”.

ITN Productions described Mone as “the ultimate rags to riches story”, rising from poverty-stricken Glasgow to become one of Britain’s most high-profile businesswomen and a member of the House of Lords.

The documentary chronicles the scandal surrounding a government contract to supply PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic which has “brought her to the edge of ruin”.

ITN said: “This definitive documentary charts … how she lied about her role in the deal that made millions from taxpayers during the worst health crisis of our lifetimes. This is the ultimate tale of boom to bust, told by those who know her well and those who’ve investigated every twist and turn.

“It unearths her denial as Mone attempted to hide the truth, culminating in a car-crash interview that revealed her husband stood to gain a staggering £60 million profit from the deal — and a criminal investigation which could yet seal the ultimate fall from grace.”

In an interview with the BBC in 2023 Mone admitted repeatedly lying to journalists about the fact she and her family stood to benefit from the PPE contracts but insisted “that’s not a crime”.

Jo Maugham KC, who leads the Good Law Project campaign group, told ITN: “Michelle Mone took advantage of her political connections to sell duff PPE at enormous profit. The truth is if you are a peer you get special access. She was emailing Michael Gove using their private email addresses.”

Nadine Dorries, health minister from 2019-21 said: “God loves a trier but never trust a liar. At a time when nurses were cutting up black bin bags in order to protect themselves, she was coining it in.”

The documentary reflects on Mone’s dubious statements including that the bra worn by the actress Julia Roberts in the film Erin Brockovich was her design and that Albert Einstein had once lived in her Glasgow home.

It also tells how Rod Stewart called her “a manipulative cow”.

Jack Irvine, a PR consultant who worked with Mone in the Nineties, said: “She had a habit of not telling me things I should know. Two things drive Michelle: money and fame.” A spokesman for Mone and Barrowman said: “Faced with mounting public criticism of its Covid-19 response, and with individual ministers finding themselves personally implicated in arrangements with unsuitable suppliers, the previous government, via the Department for Health and Social Care, enlisted the resources and draconian criminal justice powers of the National Crime Agency to mount a full-on legal attack against Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman.”