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The PPE company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone has gone into administration owing £39m to the taxman, the Mirror can reveal. This is on top of £148m in damages, costs and interest that PPE Medpro owes to the Department of Health after losing a High Court lawsuit over non-sterile gowns. It comes amid speculation that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to break Labour ’s manifesto pledge not to raise key taxes paid by ordinary people. Now, as people who lost loved ones in the pandemic call for Baroness Mone to be stripped of her title, HMRC says PPE Medpro owes it £39,009,047.78. In light of the latest development, a spokesman for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: “Many of our loved ones died because of a shortage of PPE. “Meanwhile, PPE Medpro banked millions and delivered equipment that was unusable and unsafe. We want justice. The government must use every measure to recover public money, pursue sanctions, and hold those responsible to account, including stripping Baroness Mone of her place in the Lords and OBE.” Mone and her husband Barrowman, who live offshore on the tax haven of the Isle of Man, have reportedly benefitted from £65m in profits from a total of £202m in PPE deals the company secured after she lobbied the Government. As we revealed in September, the firm was put into administration on the eve of the damning court judgement and new paperwork now reveals it could owe as much as £190m to the taxpayer. It is unclear why HM Revenue and Customs has told the administrators that it is owed £39,009,047.78 by PPE Medpro. The joint administrators, Forvis Mazars, “pass no comment” on the claim but say that “further claims are anticipated”. HMRC said it "cannot comment on businesses due to confidentiality law". PPE Medpro's administrators added that the Department for Health and Social Care is owed £148,045,993. The DHSC was awarded £122m in damages last month but PPE Medpro missed a deadline for repayment. According to the statement of affairs, PPE Medpro has just £951,134 left in assets. Barristers for the firm told the trial that it had been "singled out for unfair treatment" and accused the Government of "buyer's remorse", claiming the gowns became defective due to the conditions they were kept in after being delivered to the DHSC. PPE Medpro was awarded the covid contracts by the former Tory administration. The deals came after the peer – on a leave of absence from the Lords since 2022 – recommended it to ministers. The couple have denied wrongdoing. Baroness Mone, 53 – who rose to prominence founding lingerie firm Ultimo – was handed a peerage by the Tories in 2015 but has been at the centre of controversy over her involvement in the scandal. In 2023, the peer admitted lying when she told the Mirror she had no involvement with PPE Medpro. Separately, the couple and the company are subject to an ongoing investigation by the National Crime Agency, Britain’s version of the FBI. The probe, opened in May 2021, is into “suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro”. The pair have been questioned by officers and their properties searched. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said at the time of the judgement that PPE Medpro had “put NHS staff and patients in danger with substandard kit whilst lining their own pockets@ and that “we're coming after every penny owed to our NHS”. Baroness Mone took to X to insist that she and her husband had been made a "poster couple for the PPE scandal", claiming the DHSC had turned down multimillion-pound offers to settle the case. But paperwork filed at Companies House by the administrators reveal that one creditor set to be repaid in full is a company on the Isle of Man which is linked to Baroness Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman. Angelo (PTC) Limited is the “secured creditor” which put PPE Medpro into administration over a £1m debt. The latest administrators report seen by the Mirror state that “it is currently anticipated that there will be sufficient realisations to enable Angelo (PTC) to be repaid in full”. Documents filed at the Isle of Man Companies Registry state the Angelo (PTC) limited was established in 2023 and is owned by the Knox Foundation. The Knox Foundation was established on the Isle of Man in 2017 with council members including Anthony Page, a Barrowman associate, who was a director of PPE Medpro from 2020 until 2023. Since 2023, PPE Medpro has had one director, another business associate of Barrowman called Arthur Lancaster. Mr Lancaster has told the administrators of PPE Medpro that the company is owed £948,416 by HMRC. But the administrators say “the prospect of recovery is uncertain and is under review”. Tax expert Dan Neidle, of Tax Policy Associates, told the Mirror: “Barrowman has a history of running egregious tax avoidance schemes with little or no technical basis. It may be that is what has happened here. It is certainly extraordinary that a company should make such large profits and, it seems from the accounts, pay no corporation tax. “It is therefore unsurprising that HMRC is challenging it. The question is whether HMRC will be able to pursue other Barrowman companies or Barrowman himself, given that this company has no cash.” Barrowman has always denied any wrongdoing.
