'We need answers': Labour demands 'truth' of £200 million PPE contracts after Tory peer takes 'leave of absence'
6 December 2022, 18:29 | Updated: 6 December 2022, 18:36
Labour's deputy leader has called for the government to reveal "the truth" over "dodgy lobbying" linked to the award of Covid equipment contracts, after a Conservative peer went on leave after it was revealed her links to a PPE firm could have netted her tens of millions of pounds.
Labour plans to try to force the Government to release records of a £200 million contract awarded to PPE Medpro, which is linked to Baroness Mone - who has now stepped back "to clear her name".
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayne told the House of Commons on Tuesday: "This is a plea for answers, a plea for clarity, a plea for the truth. And the choice that the House makes today is simple too.
"Our demand is clear. End the cover up and begin the clean up."
She added: "We already know that the so-called VIP lane for PPE enabled the shameful waste of taxpayers’ money and inexcusable profiteering by unfit and unqualified providers. We know that the Government has already written off £10 billion of public funds spent on personal protective equipment that was either unusable, overpriced or undelivered.
"Ministers have admitted that they are still paying £770,000 a day of taxpayers’ cash to store gloves, goggles and gowns. Enough to pay for 75,000 spaces in afterschool clubs or 19,000 in full-time nursery care. £106,000 of that money is sent to China every day alone to pay for storage costs.
"We already know that £4 billion worth of unusable PPE has been burnt to generate power, after 70 million PPE items were sold off for just £400,000. What we don’t yet know is how on earth any of this was allowed to happen."
Ms Rayner said that people are "sick of being ripped off, off being taken for fools - and they want to know the truth."
She added that ministers should decide if they want a repeat of the Covid PPE scenario in future similar situations.
Health minister Will Quince said in response that "the government is committed to releasing information when all investigations are concluded."
He added: "Our response will necessarily take into account the wider public interest and the commercially sensitive nature of the material."
It comes after Baroness Mone stepped back from active proceedings in the House of Lords on Tuesday after being linked to PPE Medpro - despite her lawyers previously saying she "had no role or function" in the company.
A spokesman for Tory peer Baroness Mone said: "With immediate effect, Baroness Mone will be taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her."
The leave of absence means Lady Mone will not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings and will not be able to claim any allowance.
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Ms Rayner said earlier that companies like PPE Medpro were recommended during the pandemic by Tory ministers, MPs and peers, and given "fast track" and "preferential treatment".
She described the so-called VIP lane as "a scandal of epic proportions".
She said that the company was awarded a £122 million contract for gowns that "could not be used" and that £700,000 of "taxpayers' money" a day is now being wasted on storing the unusable PPE. The company has denied that the kit was faulty.
Ms Rayner added: "This looks very dodgy - people making huge sums of money on PPE that couldn't be used. It needs to be exposed now. Those documents need to come out and it needs to be out in the open."
Last week the Guardian revealed she appeared to have profited from the profits of the PPE company.
She received £29m originating from the profits of PPE Medpro, after recommending the company to ministers, the paper claimed.
She allegedly helped the company secure a place in the government’s PPE “VIP lane,” and the firm went on to secure contracts worth more than £200m.
Between May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.
In December 2020, it emerged that millions of gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.
PPE Medpro said at the time that it had complied 100% with the terms specified in its contract.
Businesswoman Baroness Mone, who joined the Lords in 2015, is being investigated by the Lords commissioner for standards.
The Department of Health said: "Due diligence was carried out on all companies that were referred to the department and every company was subjected to the same checks."
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: "This is more proof if any were needed that Sunak’s pledge of integrity has been reduced to dust.
"The public will be rightly appalled that we are still hearing allegations about how many of the Tories’ friends were able to cash in on human suffering.
"Sunak needs to suspend the whip for Mone and commit on public record that he will personally ensure that everyone in his party fully complies with any investigation."
