Baroness Mone accuses Covid inquiry of ‘establishment cover-up’

Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman accused the investigation of an “concealment of establishment” after their second attempt to see each other was rejected in the official role in the investigation.

The couple said that they were the target of a “witch hunt for political motivation” after the president of the investigation, Baroness Hallett, refused their request to be made “main participants”.

PPE MedPro, a company led by Mr. Barrowman, obtained government contracts worth more than 200 million pounds sterling after Baroness Mone recommended it to ministers.

If it is approved, the official status would have enabled the couple to access the investigation documents, to make declarations and to apply to ask questions to the witnesses.

Baroness Hallett rejected their approach for the first time in February, saying that this came 468 days after the deadline for applications, and it did not accept that they had a sufficiently important role “in questions to be the subject of an investigation by the survey”.

She had previously declared that her main objective was the approach of ministers and government, rather than providers of personal protective equipment (EPI).

The cocovated survey leads four weeks of audiences to the purchase of 15 billion pounds of EPI Sterling during COVVID.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has investigated EPI Medpro since May 2021 for alleged criminal offenses committed in the supply process.

To date, no accusation has been made and the crown prosecution service has not been educated in the case. Baroness Mone, 53, and Mr. Barrowman, 59, both denied reprehensible acts.

A special survey on the company will take place in camera next week after Baroness Hallett said it was convinced that there was a risk of prejudice to the NCA in progress if “sensitive evidence” had been made public.

In a joint statement, Baroness Mone and her husband declared that the decision to hear evidence in private was “a blatant betrayal of transparency and justice” and accused the NCA of carrying out “a ruthless campaign” against them.

The couple said: “While the investigation refused to exclude EPI MedPro, they gave the NCA the power to dictate the procedures behind a wall of secrecy, ensuring that only their version of events is heard – while we refuse the right to defend ourselves.”

In an article on social networks, Baroness Mone said that it did not realize that the company would be “specifically profiled” by the survey before the end of February.

“Until then, it has been heard that the discussions were general, covering the overall purchases of PPE, and not targeting any individual entity,” she added.

The couple’s declaration was published after their second approach to the main participants has been rejected.

Baroness Hallett said that allowing the procedural request would have led to a “diversion of resources” and would have caused “a significant disturbance” of the survey calendar.