21 October 2025 , 08:45
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Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to recover more than £100m of taxpayer money from a company linked to Baroness Mone over a Covid medical supplies scandal.
The Prime Minister said his Government would “pursue every penny” from PPE Medpro, which is owned by a consortium led by Doug Barrowman, the husband of the lingerie tycoon.
Speaking from Downing Street, Sir Keir pledged not to “give up” on the money after the company missed a repayment deadline last week.
PPE Medpro provided 25 million surgical gowns to the government in 2020 after being fast-tracked through a so-called VIP lane.
A judge said the company failed to prove there were required processes in place to ensure the garments were properly sterilized, and ordered it to pay £122m to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
PPE Medpro has argued the equipment only became defective in storage, and Lady Mone has called the case an “establishment setup”.
The company, established in the early weeks of the pandemic, was awarded contracts worth £200m after its bid was fast-tracked by the then Conservative government.
Lady Mone, who was awarded a peerage by David Cameron in 2015, personally referred the firm to the “high priority lane”. It entered administration on Sept 30, the day before the court judgment.
However, the Prime Minister said: “We’ve been really clear about getting our money back, whether it’s Michelle Mone or anybody else, and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, was very clear about this in opposition.
“We intend to recover as much of our money as possible, because that is taxpayers’ money and we want it back. And we’ll pursue every penny of it.”
He said Baroness Mone was not sitting in the Lords at the moment anyway but added: “We’re not going to give up on the money, no, absolutely not.”
Baroness Mone has faced cross-party calls for her to be stripped of her peerage since the court ruling. However, peerages can only be removed by an act of Parliament.
Medpro was ordered to pay interest of £23.6m, which means the total sum owed is £145.6m.
The DHSC has said this sum will accrue interest at 8 percent per year until it is fully paid.
World Affairs Correspondent