Lady Michelle Mone@MichelleMone
For the past seven months, I have stayed silent. But the truth is, I have endured five years of pure torture, relentless press and media attacks, every single day, without responding. Enough is enough. It is time for the public to know the truth. This year alone, three documentaries have been made about me (Channel 5, BBC, and ITV). The interviews I have previously given were cut and edited to fit a predetermined narrative. Now it is time to set the record straight and share some home truths. Since December 2022, my husband Doug and PPE Medpro have worked tirelessly with the DHSC to resolve this dispute. Doug’s position has always been clear: PPE Medpro supplied sterile gowns manufactured at seven fully accredited sterilisation plants in China, the same facilities relied upon by governments and suppliers worldwide, including UK companies. Are the DHSC really suggesting that all seven of these internationally approved facilities somehow failed? It is essential to note that PPE Medpro successfully delivered 210 million masks, which were accepted and utilised within the NHS. At the time, the Department was even discussing ordering further gowns from the company, after the original gowns had been received, checked, and paid for. These are not the actions of a bad supplier; they are the actions of one that fulfilled its contracts. This case was never about gowns or money. It has always been about politics and blame-shifting, a way to cover up the Government’s disastrous £10 billion PPE write-off. Doug and I have been deliberately scapegoated and vilified in an orchestrated campaign designed to distract from catastrophic mismanagement of PPE procurement. The Government decided to make us the poster couple for the PPE scandal, a convenient distraction to take the blame off them. Meanwhile, the public can see with their own eyes images of PPE worth billions dumped in fields and warehouses across the country. That is the real scandal. It is also worth asking: why is PPE Medpro the only company being taken to court? PPE Medpro delivered products manufactured to internationally recognised standards, yet many other suppliers who ran off with deposits or provided defective goods face no action. Singling out one company in this way is not justice; it is scapegoating. What the Government and its press machine will not tell you is this: before the civil trial, the Consortium behind PPE Medpro offered the DHSC, on a no-fault basis, either to replace all 25 million gowns or to provide a cash settlement of £23 million. Every single offer was rejected. Instead, the DHSC chose to spend a staggering £5 millionof taxpayers’ money pursuing litigation against a company they knew had no funds. That is truly shocking. I have attached yesterday’s PPE Medpro press statement, which sets out in detail the offers made to the Government to settle this case. It makes compelling reading.