The British government is ramping up efforts to recover more than £145 million from PPE Medpro, a company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman, after the firm missed a court-imposed deadline to repay funds for defective personal protective equipment supplied during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On October 15, 2025, PPE Medpro was ordered by High Court judge Mrs Justice Cockerill to return £121,999,219.20 to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) by 4pm that day, following a damning ruling that 25 million sterile surgical gowns provided by the company were not, in fact, sterile and could not be used in the NHS. According to the BBC, the ruling concluded the gowns were “not, contractually speaking, sterile, or properly validated as being sterile,” a technicality that proved fatal for the company’s defense. The DHSC added that interest on the overdue bill, which had been running since the PPE was rejected as unusable in late 2020, now stood at £23.7 million and would accrue at an annual rate of 8% until the debt was paid in full.
The total sum owed by PPE Medpro to the government is now over £145 million, and with interest piling up daily, the final bill could climb even higher. Health Secretary Wes Streeting minced no words in a statement reported by The Mirror: “At a time of national crisis, PPE Medpro sold the previous government substandard kit and pocketed taxpayers’ hard-earned cash. PPE Medpro has failed to meet the deadline to pay – they still owe us over £145 million, with interest now accruing daily. We will pursue PPE Medpro with everything we’ve got to get these funds back where they belong – in our NHS.”
PPE Medpro’s financial position appears dire. The company entered administration on September 30, 2025, just one day before the court judgment, raising significant doubts about the government’s ability to recover the funds. According to company accounts cited by BBC, PPE Medpro’s net assets as of July 2025 were only £666,025, and it had used about £4.2 million in reserves to fight the legal dispute. The business’s insolvency means administrators are now in charge, but as Forvis Mazars, one of the joint administrators, declined to comment, the path to repayment remains murky.
The PPE Medpro saga began in 2020, when the company—set up by a consortium led by Doug Barrowman and recommended to ministers by Baroness Mone—secured a lucrative government contract to supply PPE during the Covid-19 emergency. But after the government ordered 25 million sterile gowns, it soon launched legal action, alleging the gowns were not up to scratch. PPE Medpro has consistently disputed the government’s claims, arguing that the gowns were indeed sterile and that any issues arose from the conditions in which they were stored after delivery. During the trial in June and July 2025, barristers for PPE Medpro accused the government of “buyer’s remorse” and maintained the company had been “singled out for unfair treatment.”
The company’s leadership has not shied away from public criticism of the legal process. Lady Mone, who was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron in 2015 after building her fortune in lingerie, took to social media the day before the ruling, accusing the government of making her and Barrowman “the poster couple for the PPE scandal” and claiming it had turned down multimillion-pound offers to settle. She later described Mrs Justice Cockerill’s ruling as a win for the “establishment,” while Barrowman called it a “travesty of justice.” Both maintain that PPE Medpro provided all 25 million gowns as promised and that the court’s decision was based on a technicality.
Despite their involvement, neither Mone nor Barrowman is personally liable for the money owed. Barrowman has described himself as the “ultimate beneficial owner” of PPE Medpro and acknowledged that £29 million in profit from the deal was paid into a trust benefiting his family, including Mone and her children, but he was never a director of the company. As reported by Daily Business Group, the couple has faced mounting scrutiny, especially after admitting in 2023 that they had lied to the press about their involvement in PPE Medpro.
Efforts to reach a settlement have so far faltered. During the trial, PPE Medpro offered to pay £23 million to settle the case, but this was rejected by the DHSC. On October 11, 2025, a spokesperson for Barrowman reiterated the consortium’s willingness to “enter into discussions with the Government, via the administrators, to reach a possible settlement,” but lamented that “the Government has made no effort to respond or seek to enter into discussions.” The government, for its part, appears determined to recoup the full amount, with Streeting vowing to “pursue PPE Medpro with everything we’ve got.”
The fallout from the case has extended beyond the courtroom. The National Crime Agency (NCA) is investigating the PPE Medpro affair, though it remains unclear whether other companies that received £83 million from the deal, as claimed by Barrowman’s spokesman, are also under scrutiny. Meanwhile, Baroness Mone has faced cross-party calls to be stripped of her peerage, with more than 285,000 people signing a petition demanding her removal from the House of Lords. Under current law, only an act of Parliament can remove a peerage, but Mone has already taken a leave of absence from the Lords and stated in a letter to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch that she has “no wish to return” as a Conservative peer.
The public and political backlash highlights the enduring controversy over the government’s use of the so-called “VIP lane” for awarding PPE contracts during the pandemic. The Mirror first revealed Mone’s links to PPE Medpro, and subsequent revelations that she and Barrowman benefited from millions in profits have only deepened public anger. The case has become a symbol of the perceived failures and cronyism of pandemic procurement, with opposition politicians and campaigners demanding greater accountability.
For now, the government faces a complex legal and financial battle to recover the money—one that could drag on for months or even years. With PPE Medpro in administration and its assets dwarfed by its liabilities, the chances of recouping the full £145 million appear slim. But as Streeting’s uncompromising rhetoric suggests, the pursuit of justice—and taxpayers’ cash—will continue, wherever it leads.
The PPE Medpro scandal stands as a cautionary tale about the risks of emergency procurement and the enduring consequences of decisions made in the heat of crisis. For the NHS and the British taxpayer, the search for accountability is far from over.
