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Post by Dancin on Dec 6, 2022 13:06:26 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Dec 6, 2022 16:45:06 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Dec 6, 2022 23:09:43 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/06/revealed-second-firm-pushed-by-michelle-mone-was-secret-entity-of-husbands-officeA second company that the Tory peer Michelle Mone lobbied ministers over in an attempt to secure government Covid contracts was a secret entity of her husband’s family office, the Guardian can reveal. Lady Mone’s lobbying on behalf of the company, LFI Diagnostics, which she tried to help secure government contracts for Covid lateral flow tests, prompted a formal rebuke from a health minister who reminded her of “the need for propriety”. A departmental source told the Guardian that Mone was “in a class of her own in terms of the sheer aggression of her advocacy” on behalf of LFI Diagnostics. However, it is the revelation that the company was a secret entity of the office that manages the wealth of her husband, Douglas Barrowman, that will deepen the controversy over the Tory peer and her access to ministers. Mone’s apparent lobbying during the pandemic of at least four Tory ministers – Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Lord Agnew and Lord Bethell – is threatening to become a major scandal for the government. In the House of Commons on Tuesday evening, MPs voted to force the government to release documents relating to £200m contracts that were given to PPE Medpro in June 2020, weeks after Mone referred it to Gove and Agnew, using their personal email addresses. A crucial document seen by the Guardian suggests that both PPE Medpro and LFI Diagnostics were set up for the ultimate benefit of Barrowman and his family.
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Post by northwestman on Dec 7, 2022 10:57:06 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/07/ex-tory-donor-scathing-about-partys-response-to-michelle-mone-allegationsA former Conservative donor who recently defected to Labour has launched a scathing attack on his former party, saying their response to the allegations about the Tory peer Michelle Mone has only strengthened his determination to help oust them from office. Gareth Quarry, a businessman who recently gave Labour £50,000, told the Guardian he planned to increase that sum in the coming months, saying the Tories had trashed their reputation and that of the country. He pointed to the row over the Conservative peer Lady Mone, who announced on Tuesday she was taking leave of absence from the House of Lords after the Guardian revealed she appeared to have received millions from the profits of a PPE company that was given government funding. Labour last night won a vote that will force the government to publish some documents underpinning that contract. Quarry said: “The Tory response is indefensible. If there is nothing to hide, why are we having to dance this dance to get disclosure? But it fits a pattern – there seems to be a total inability on the part of the Tory party to put their hand up and say we got this wrong. “The moral standards of the party have been completely trashed over many years.”
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Post by northwestman on Dec 7, 2022 21:52:10 GMT 1
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Post by staffordshrew on Dec 7, 2022 22:51:44 GMT 1
All the way through this ppe procuremnt scandel the government have treated the public as if we have taken leave of our senses. VIP lines, the man down the pub setting up a ppe business, minimal checks and records, mountains of sub standard ppe now costing money to be stored, etc, etc.
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Post by zenfootball2 on Dec 8, 2022 18:26:50 GMT 1
the veting for awarding contracts was neligable and millions was just spent on many projects that did not deliver ,every dud contract were friends of the torys got contracts should be investigated and if possible cri minal charges should be made.
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Post by MetaShrew on Dec 8, 2022 20:16:48 GMT 1
the veting for awarding contracts was neligable and millions was just spent on many projects that did not deliver ,every dud contract were friends of the torys got contracts should be investigated and if possible cri minal charges should be made. This is the only morally acceptable course of action – so you can see where we immediately encounter a problem... |
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Post by zenfootball2 on Dec 9, 2022 8:06:06 GMT 1
the veting for awarding contracts was neligable and millions was just spent on many projects that did not deliver ,every dud contract were friends of the torys got contracts should be investigated and if possible cri minal charges should be made. This is the only morally acceptable course of action – so you can see where we immediately encounter a problem... yes the big problem is the stumbling block of the "morally acetable action " ( for a party who would not know moralality if they fell over it),that and a lot of the friends / or donors to the tory party of the goverment would face investigations. |
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Post by northwestman on Dec 9, 2022 19:01:18 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Dec 9, 2022 19:47:39 GMT 1
So the Mone affair, as it may come to be known, is the subject of various investigations; thus far the National Crime Agency, the House of Lords standards commissioners, the House of Commons public accounts committee and (quite possibly) the judge-led public inquiry into the official response to the pandemic. Plus, of course, growing media attention.
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Post by northwestman on Dec 17, 2022 20:04:03 GMT 1
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11548793/Michelle-Mones-business-husband-Doug-Barrowman-faces-jail-convicted-Spanish-tax-charge.htmlTory peer Michelle Mone's billionaire businessman husband Doug Barrowman, 57, could face incarceration if convicted of an alleged tax crime in Spain. Prosecutors in Santander confirmed they were seeking custodial sentences for seven executives if found guilty ahead of their trial at a court in the northern Spanish city. Mr Barrowman's indictment relates to claims a 'fraudulent' invoice he and six partners allegedly benefitted from, was used to allegedly evade tax and take millions of pounds out of a Spanish company and into their pockets before it went bankrupt and led to 200 workers at a cable factory near Santander losing their jobs.
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Post by northwestman on Dec 19, 2022 20:09:25 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/19/ppe-medpro-uk-government-issues-breach-of-contract-proceedingsThe UK government has commenced legal action to recover more than £100m from the company that was awarded two large PPE contracts after the Conservative peer Michelle Mone recommended it to ministers. The claim, confirmed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), is for the full £122m paid to the company, PPE Medpro, under a contract for it to supply 25m sterile surgical gowns that was awarded in June 2020. The DHSC is also seeking to recover the costs of storing and disposing of the gowns, which its officials rejected after an inspection when they arrived at the NHS depot in Daventry.
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Post by northwestman on Jan 4, 2023 20:33:56 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/04/ppe-medpro-uk-government-alleges-firm-supplied-defective-gowns-nhsThe UK government has accused a company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone of supplying defective gowns that could have compromised the safety of patients had it been used in the NHS. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) paid the company, PPE Medpro, £122m for 25m sterile surgical gowns under a contract awarded in June 2020 after Mone first approached ministers offering to supply PPE. However, the DHSC has alleged the gowns were rejected because they were not sterile, their technical labelling was “invalid” and “improper”, and they “cannot be used within the NHS for any purpose”.
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Post by staffordshrew on Jan 5, 2023 23:34:38 GMT 1
She's gone to ground too. An honourable member would be negoiiating how much to pay back in compensation to us hard up taxpayers.
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Post by northwestman on Jan 20, 2023 12:58:30 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Feb 1, 2023 22:05:06 GMT 1
Michelle Mone's yacht is renamed 'Pandemic Profiteer'.
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Post by staffordshrew on Feb 22, 2023 0:15:12 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Nov 7, 2023 16:28:03 GMT 1
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Post by DiglisShrew on Nov 11, 2023 13:11:41 GMT 1
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Post by northwestman on Dec 17, 2023 12:03:47 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/17/michelle-mone-admits-she-stands-to-benefit-from-60m-pounds-ppe-profitThe former Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, have acknowledged for the first time that he made multimillion pound profits from two PPE deals during the Covid pandemic. Mone also acknowledged for the first time that, as revealed by the Guardian last year, Barrowman then transferred money from those profits to a trust, the Keristal Trust, set up for the benefit of Mone and her three adult children. The couple said Barrowman’s children were also beneficiaries of the trust. In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Mone and Barrowman both also admitted they lied to the media for years when they denied they were involved with the company awarded the contracts, PPE Medpro Ltd. Barrowman said the company had made profits of approximately one-third on the £203m contracts – approximately £67m. Some of the money, he confirmed for the first time, was transferred to the Keristal Trust.
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Post by northwestman on Dec 17, 2023 12:12:53 GMT 1
Some further questions that need to be asked of Mone:
1. Why did Mone send libel lawyers to threaten newspapers for reporting that she was connected with PPE supplier PPE Medpro? Something she now admits is the truth.
2. Why did Mone and Barrowman cover up the ownership of PPE Medpro, breaking Company Law by unlawfully failing to report they were the owners?
3. Why, despite Mone’s recent admissions, does PPE Medpro still unlawfully fail to disclose its true ownership?
4. Mone now admits her connection to PPE Medpro. She received a large benefit from it when it made an expensive-looking documentary defending her. Will she pay tax on this benefit?
5. Please describe the ownership structure and trading relationship between PPE Medpro (registered in England & Wales) and PPE Medpro (registered in Isle of Man)? Which company had the contract to supply PPE and which company received payment under the contract?
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Post by northwestman on Dec 17, 2023 12:19:14 GMT 1
More on Barrowman, Mone's husband. www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/20/hmrc-names-three-schemes-linked-to-michelle-mone-husband-as-tax-avoidanceThree payment programmes operated by a company linked to the husband of the Conservative peer Michelle Mone have been named as tax avoidance schemes by HM Revenue and Customs. Douglas Barrowman, Lady Mone’s husband since they married on the Isle of Man in November 2020, is the founder and chairman of the Knox Group, a financial services and wealth management firm based on the island, which is widely considered to be a tax haven. HMRC said a Manchester-based company, AML Tax (UK) Ltd, which ran the three newly named tax avoidance schemes was “a part of Doug Barrowman’s Isle of Man-based Knox Group”. HMRC won legal cases against AML last year under tax laws that require companies to notify HMRC of payment schemes that should be classified as tax avoidance schemes because one of the “main benefits” is to obtain a “tax advantage”. |
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Post by northwestman on Dec 17, 2023 19:52:30 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/23/michelle-mones-ppe-denials-v-what-we-knowDismissing mounting evidence pointing to their secret involvement in the PPE business, Mone and Barrowman insisted they had little or nothing to do with the company. Lawyers for the couple have variously accused reporters of “clutching at straws”, and making allegations that were “largely incorrect” and “grounded entirely on supposition and speculation and not based on accuracy”. Well, that's certainly turned out to be a pack of lies!
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Post by ssshrew on Dec 17, 2023 20:23:57 GMT 1
What I don’t understand is why any of this about them or any of the others is news. It’s just par for the course.
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Post by MetaShrew on Dec 18, 2023 15:18:32 GMT 1
God, that interview! Not since Prince Andrew has such an 'I got this' attitude been so hilariously misplaced.
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Post by northwestman on Dec 18, 2023 16:42:17 GMT 1
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/18/michelle-mone-hits-out-rishi-sunak-ppe-dealsMichelle Mone has condemned Rishi Sunak after he expressed concern at her admission she lied about involvement in a company that won lucrative deals during Covid, saying the government “knew about my involvement from the very beginning”. After the former Conservative peer admitted in a BBC interview on Sunday that she had been untruthful in denying a connection to PPE Medpro, which made millions of pounds in profits over a contract to provide personal protective equipment, Sunak said No 10 was taking the case “incredibly seriously”. In a furious response to the prime minister’s comments, Mone tweeted: “What is Rishi Sunak talking about? I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the government and the NHS in my dealings with them. They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.” Her comments place even greater pressure on ministers to explain what they knew about the affair, particularly Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has already called for Gove to make a statement on Mone and PPE Medpro.
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Post by northwestman on Dec 20, 2023 11:44:52 GMT 1
I located this video and subsequent written document about some of Barrowman's exploits. By the end of the video I was absolutely amazed at what he gets up to. Not content with losing investors hundreds of thousands of pounds on a failed tax avoidance scheme, he then sets up another company to try to persuade those investors that it can make 95% of the money they owe to HMRC go away, and then a further company promising that only a % of self employed wages will be taxed. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000nl8hdownloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/fileon4/PAJ0561PG17_taxing_situations.pdf |
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Post by northwestman on Dec 21, 2023 16:38:13 GMT 1
Stanley Baldwin a century ago - “a (wo)man who made a million quick ought not to be in the House of Lords but in jail”
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Post by zenfootball2 on Dec 25, 2023 11:04:57 GMT 1
If some people who wanted tighter control over the press got there way, we would have probably never heard about this.
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