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Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The revealing inside account of how Baroness Bra came undone: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone
The Rise And Fall Of Michelle Mone (BBC2) Baroness Mone scares people. Nobody says as much, no one turns white at the mention of her name and scuttles away from the camera. But they don't have to. Michelle Mone is known as Baroness Bra, after building a lingerie business whose biggest product was a brassiere filled with bust-enhancing gel. She was elevated to the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2015. But it was telling that, during the two-part investigation into her life, The Rise And Fall Of Michelle Mone, not one friend or family member appears in her defence. Neither her current husband Doug Barrowman nor her former husband Michael Mone agrees to be interviewed. Even former employees insist on anonymity, with their voices disguised. The only person willing to speak up for her Ladyship was her American therapist, Dr Ted Anders, a smooth-skinned man with more teeth than is strictly necessary. Director Erika Jenkin's documentary builds to an infamous confrontation with the BBC 's Laura Kuenssberg, with the Glasgow businesswoman squirming under questions about the PPE scandal — one stone-faced Scottish blonde charging another with helping herself to an inordinately large slice of the public finances. Barrowman's company PPE Medpro, which was awarded contracts for medical equipment worth £200 million during the pandemic, has been accused of providing unusable materials, with his wife Baroness Mone and her children standing to benefit from a £29m trust fund. Despite this, the two-hour programme — both episodes now available on iPlayer — is not an all-out hatchet job. It stops well short of accusing her of any crime (unless you count 'lying to the media', which Baroness Mone reminds us is perfectly fine). But she comes across as a thoroughly unpleasant woman: dishonest, bullying, self-obsessed, manipulative and lacking much talent for either business or innovation. In real life, she might be a lot worse than that, of course. Her former PR man Jack Irvine accuses her of 'massive deluded self-confidence,' and says: 'She had a strange relationship with the truth. It's difficult to work with people who can't be honest.' That said, I can't help feeling she draws a lot of criticism for a business style that would be more admired if she was a man, particularly a man who went to public school. Her ambition as a teenager, when she worked as a bikini model, was to be 'the female Richard Branson' — and it's Branson's brash self-confidence that makes him both charismatic and unsinkable. Mone is roundly criticised for spreading stories that Julia Roberts wore her Ultimo bras, in the film Erin Brockovich. The claim was as fake as an Ultimo cleavage, but so what? There's a fair bit of snobbery and chauvinism among her critics. But she invites this, by constantly harping on her upbringing in 'Glasgow's East End' and by posing in her own products. All very tacky.
Scottish Sun
25-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
I never told Michelle Mone to lie over PPE scandal, says bra tycoon's ex lawyer
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) MICHELLE Mone's ex-lawyer has denied telling her to lie about links to a scandal-hit firm. Jonathan Coad insisted the Scots bra tycoon's allegation that he did was 'not true'. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 Michelle Mone's ex-lawyer has denied telling her to lie about links to a scandal-hit firm Credit: Getty 3 She blamed Jonathan Coad for her three-year refusal to confirm her connection to PPE Medpro Baroness Mone, 53, blamed him for her three-year refusal to confirm her connection to PPE Medpro — given £200million for Covid protection kit and now being probed by cops. Mr Coad, 67, said: 'I did not advise her she should keep her involvement secret. "The suggestion she did so by taking the advice of her lawyers is just not true. "To have Baroness Mone make allegations against me of serious impropriety was potentially very damaging." He added: "I apologised to the media for unintentionally misleading them. "I explained all that I said was based on instructions I received. "I got a shirty letter from her current lawyers complaining that by my apology, I had disclosed confidential information. "I don't think that I did." Mr Coad was speaking to The Scottish Sun's new documentary, Michelle Mone: Lingerie, Lies and the PPE Scandal. The Tory peer and hubby Doug Barrowman, 60, both born in Glasgow, deny wrongdoing. Carol Vorderman finally reveals real reason she ended friendship with Michelle Mone
The Independent
09-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Trial date set as government takes Mone-linked Covid PPE provider to High Court
A trial between the Government and PPE Medpro over the supply of personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic is due to start at the High Court in June, lawyers have said. The Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Care (SSHSC) issued legal proceedings against the company more than two years ago saying it had breached a contract of a deal on the supply of gowns. SSHSC accuses PPE Medpro of delivering the gowns from China in 2020 without the correct certification showing they had been reliably sterilised. PPE Medpro denies breaching the contract and said the gowns were properly sterilised, its lawyers said in previously filed court documents. Lawyers for SSHSC said the Government tested a sample of 60 gowns and that 55 were found to be not sterile. All the gowns were therefore rejected for being unusable in the NHS and they remain in storage waiting to be disposed of or recycled, they added. SSHSC lawyers also said the Government paid £122 million for 25 million sterile surgical gowns and that it is seeking repayment of that amount, plus storage and disposal costs, which it estimates to be above £11 million. Lawyers for PPE Medpro said in court documents that Government inspection teams had examined the gowns and were satisfied that they met the regulatory standard. At a hearing on Friday, Charles Samek KC, for PPE Medpro, said that there was a delay in delivering the gowns which led to them becoming contaminated with microbes. He described it as a 'real issue', adding: 'They were shipped overseas and decanted into storage containers, sometimes left in the shipping containers. 'It may even have been the case that they sat in containers in farmlands or fields.' Lawyers for both sides also discussed beginning the trial around June 11, which will take place before Mrs Justice Cockerill. PPE Medpro faced criticism after it was awarded contracts worth more than £200 million to supply the Government with personal protective equipment at the height of the pandemic.
Glasgow Times
08-05-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
BBC reveal details of series on 'rise and fall' of Michelle Mone
The two-part series investigating the disgraced businesswoman is due to begin on Monday, May 26 with a 10pm broadcast on BBC Scotland. The documentary will then be available on BBC iPlayer, before being shown on BBC Two on Wednesday, May 28. Mone has had her assets frozen and has taken a leave from the House of Lords amid an ongoing National Crime Agency (NCA) probe into PPE Medpro, a firm which was given UK government contracts worth more than £200 million during the Covid pandemic. Mone repeatedly lied and claimed she was not connected to the firm, which she had recommended to Tory ministers. However, she later admitted the deception and said that she stood to benefit from £29m in profits which had been placed in an offshore trust by her husband Douglas Barrowman. In February, the NCA said there was a 'realistic" chance that criminal charges will follow the ongoing investigation into Covid contracts handed to PPE Medpro. The following month, Mone issued a statement in which she claimed the NCA was 'smearing' her and had a 'vendetta'. The Tory peer claimed that the NCA had "waged a ruthless campaign to destroy us, dragging out an investigation with no merit, no justification, and no end in sight". The two-part series, made by Rogan Productions for the BBC, is set to examine both how Mone rose to prominence as a lingerie entrepreneur, how she was elevated to the Lords by former prime minister David Cameron, and how she fell into disgrace in the public eye due to Covid contracts. Michelle Mone lied to the media repeatedly (Image: Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg) Simon Young, the BBC's head of commissioning for history, said: 'It's still unclear where this story will end, but there's no better time to go back to understand where it all began, revealing the foundations of one of the most astonishing stories in the recent history of British business. 'We're really excited to be working with Rogan Scotland, and our colleagues at BBC Scotland, to bring this series to the screen.' David Harron, a commissioning executive at BBC Scotland, added: 'This is a fascinating and remarkable story and we hope that viewers will find this series compelling and thought provoking.'
The National
08-05-2025
- Business
- The National
BBC reveal details of series on 'rise and fall' of Michelle Mone
The two-part series investigating the disgraced businesswoman is due to begin on Monday, May 26 with a 10pm broadcast on BBC Scotland. The documentary will then be available on BBC iPlayer, before being shown on BBC Two on Wednesday, May 28. Mone has had her assets frozen and has taken a leave from the House of Lords amid an ongoing National Crime Agency (NCA) probe into PPE Medpro, a firm which was given UK government contracts worth more than £200 million during the Covid pandemic. Mone repeatedly lied and claimed she was not connected to the firm, which she had recommended to Tory ministers. READ MORE: Prince Andrew linked to Michelle Mone's PPE Medpro firm However, she later admitted the deception and said that she stood to benefit from £29m in profits which had been placed in an offshore trust by her husband Douglas Barrowman. In February, the NCA said there was a 'realistic" chance that criminal charges will follow the ongoing investigation into Covid contracts handed to PPE Medpro. The following month, Mone issued a statement in which she claimed the NCA was 'smearing' her and had a 'vendetta'. The Tory peer claimed that the NCA had "waged a ruthless campaign to destroy us, dragging out an investigation with no merit, no justification, and no end in sight". The two-part series, made by Rogan Productions for the BBC, is set to examine both how Mone rose to prominence as a lingerie entrepreneur, how she was elevated to the Lords by former prime minister David Cameron, and how she fell into disgrace in the public eye due to Covid contracts. Michelle Mone lied to the media repeatedly (Image: Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg) Simon Young, the BBC's head of commissioning for history, said: 'It's still unclear where this story will end, but there's no better time to go back to understand where it all began, revealing the foundations of one of the most astonishing stories in the recent history of British business. 'We're really excited to be working with Rogan Scotland, and our colleagues at BBC Scotland, to bring this series to the screen.' David Harron, a commissioning executive at BBC Scotland, added: 'This is a fascinating and remarkable story and we hope that viewers will find this series compelling and thought provoking.'
