Michelle Mone: Scottish peer cleared of unregistered lobbying by watchdog

The Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (RCL) said it had concluded an investigation into the Conservative peer and Scottish businesswoman. It comes amid ongoing controversy over her links to PPE Medpro, which was awarded contracts worth £200 million during the pandemic.

Lady Mone and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, only acknowledged their involvement in the company in November, following years of denial.

PPE Medpro is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA). It is also being sued by the UK government for £122 million plus costs for "breach of contract and unjust enrichment".

Lady Mone has been accused of profiting from the firm winning contracts to supply surgical gowns and masks after she recommended it to ministers in the early days of the pandemic. Her husband was the chairman and leader of the PPE Medpro consortium.

About £75m of assets linked to the couple, including a townhouse in Belgravia and an estate on the Isle of Man, were previously frozen or restrained following an application by the Crown Prosecution Service. The RCL started investigating Lady Mone’s communications with ministers in 2022, following an article in The Guardian.

However, earlier this month, it said it received a “witness statement and statement of truth provided by Baroness Mone, via Grosvenor Law [her laywers], setting out why the communications, subject to investigation were not made in the course of business nor in return for payment”.

It concluded: “Based on a witness statement, supported by a statement of truth, from Baroness Mone, she has not conducted unregistered consultant lobbying in relation to the matter under investigation.”

Lady Mone was made a life peer by David Cameron in 2015 after selling an 80 per cent stake in her Ultimo lingerie company. She took a leave of absence from the Lords in December 2022 following the PPE Medpro allegations. She stands to benefit from the firm’s £60m in profits that have been placed into a trust by her husband.

In December, Lady Mone admitted she had made an "error" by repeatedly denying she was linked to PPE Medpro.

Put to her that she had lied to the press, she said: "I made an error in what I said to the press. I regret not saying to the press straight away ‘yes, I am involved’, and the government knew I was involved, and the emergency Cabinet team knew I was involved. The government, DHSC knew that I was involved, the NHS, all of them knew I was involved. The legal team advised myself and my husband not to comment and not to say of my involvement in PPE Medpro.

"What I did say to them was ‘I'm not a shareholder’, which was true. I'm not a director, which was true. I am not financially benefiting directly, which is true. But I didn't want to start speaking to the press about it, and I didn't want the pain for my family again through the media."