Tory peer Michelle Mone was last night facing fresh questions over her links to a company that landed more than £200 million of Government PPE contracts.
The lingerie tycoon – nicknamed Baroness Bra – has previously denied any ‘association’ with PPE Medpro, which last year won lucrative deals to supply the NHS with facemasks and surgical gowns.
Her denials have been questioned after it was revealed that she had previously referred the company to the agency as a possible supplier during the pandemic.
PPE Medpro was then entered into a ‘VIP’ high-priority lane for firms with political connections and was awarded two contracts with a total value of £203 million.
Tory peer Michelle Mone (pictured) was last night facing fresh questions over her links to a company that landed more than £200 million of Government PPE contracts
Now an investigation by The Mail on Sunday can reveal that PPE Medpro’s owner, Anthony Page, is also the director of a firm that owns a luxury yacht on which the peer sailed around the Adriatic last summer.
Lady Mone posted a string of pictures on Instagram of herself on board the £5 million yacht, named Lady M, between August 3 and 29.
According to records, the yacht was seen sailing along the Croatian coastline that month.
Mr Page, 45, is a wealth-management expert who works for Lady Mone’s husband, Scottish entrepreneur Doug Barrowman. The company records indicate that Mr Page is also a director for LM Yachts. In May, LM Yachts bought Lady Mone’s 127-foot yacht and changed the name to Lady M.
Also, in November 2020 Mr Page attended Lady Mone’s and Mr Barrowman’s wedding.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Leader, said last night: ‘These fresh revelations underline how important it is that Baroness Mone is fully investigated.
‘She completely denied any relationship with PPE Medpro, which secured £200 million worth of taxpayers’ money on her recommendation. The further evidence uncovered by The Mail on Sunday makes a mockery of that denial.’
PPE Medpro was established in May 2020 after two months of the initial coronavirus lockdown. As its 100% shareholder, Mr. Page also became a director.
He is also a director of Knox House Trust, part of a group of companies founded by Mr Barrowman, and was the company secretary of a firm that manages Baroness Mone’s personal brand. On the day PPE Medpro was formed, he resigned.
Pictured: Anthony Page, PPE Medpro’s owner, circled, at Lady Mone’s wedding in 2020
On June 12, 2020, PPE Medpro won its first contract – worth almost £81 million – to supply 210 million facemasks. Two weeks later it landed a second £122 million contract to provide 25 million surgical gowns.
According to the Guardian, Baroness Mone’s lawyers repeatedly denied last year that she had any connection or association with PPE Medpro or a role in how it secured the contracts. Her lawyers reportedly claimed she was ‘not connected in any way with PPE Medpro’, adding that ‘any suggestion of an association’ would be ‘both inaccurate and misleading’.
Last month, however, the Department of Health and Social Care disclosed that Lady Mone had referred this company to the Government in the capacity of a supplier of PPE.
A spokesman for Lady Mone said she ‘is neither an investor, director or shareholder in any way associated with PPE Medpro’, adding: ‘She has never had any role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro.
‘Baroness Mone had no knowledge of any “high-priority lane”, and did not play any part in or have any knowledge of PPE Medpro being placed in such a lane.’
Asked if Baroness Mone’s earlier denial of any connection with the company was misleading, Mr Page replied: ‘No.’ He added: ‘I am a director of a licensed and regulated trust and corporate service provider. I am in the business of providing professional directorship services and do so to a wide range of companies and clients.’