Baroness Mone among individuals sued to recover PPE Medpro millions

Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman are among individuals being sued in an attempt to recover some of the millions owed to the government by his collapsed company, PPE Medpro, the BBC understands. The government was awarded £122m plus interest from PPE Medpro last year, after a court ruled the firm had breached a contract to supply sterile surgical gowns during the pandemic. The joint liquidators from the firm Interpath Advisory have launched a case against six individuals and five companies linked with the firm, after PPE Medpro was put into liquidation. Mone and Barrowman have been approached for comment. PPE Medpro was set up in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic as the government struggled to secure supplies of protective equipment to protect health workers during the acutest phase of the outbreak. It won its first government contract to supply masks through a so-called 'VIP lane', after a recommendation by Baroness Mone, who sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer. However by the end of 2022, the government sued the firm, claiming the medical gowns supplied did not comply with relevant healthcare standards. Last year the High Court found in the government's favour, ruling that PPE Medpro had failed to prove whether or not its surgical gowns, which were to be used by NHS workers, had undergone a validated sterilisation process. While the government had won its case, it wasn't immediately clear how it would get its money back. …