HMRC issues winding up petition against PPE firm linked to Tory peer

theguardian.com:

A company linked to the Conservative peer Michelle Mone that was awarded £203m worth of government PPE contracts during the pandemic has been issued with a winding up petition, apparently for unpaid taxes.

PPE Medpro Ltd was awarded two contracts via the government’s “VIP lane” after Lady Mone approached Michael Gove in May 2020 with an offer to supply personal protective equipment. It is already under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) for potential fraud.

Details of the winding up petition, first reported by a courts blogger, Daniel Cloake, state that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs issued it against the company on Thursday morning. No details were stated as to how much tax is claimed to be owed, nor for how long it has been outstanding.

A spokesperson for HMRC declined to provide any further information, citing a policy of not commenting on identifiable businesses.

The Guardian has previously revealed that Mone emailed her fellow Tory peer Theodore Agnew on 8 May 2020, telling him that Gove had asked her to “urgently” contact him. She proposed supplying large quantities of face masks to the government, telling Agnew they could be sourced through “my team in Hong Kong”.

Agnew, at the time a Cabinet Office minister responsible for procurement, referred Mone’s offer to civil servants who processed it through the VIP “high priority lane” for politically connected people. The company that was given the contracts, PPE Medpro Ltd, was not incorporated until 12 May 2020, four days after Mone approached Agnew.

The company was awarded its first contract, for £80.85m to supply 210m face masks, a month later. The Department of Health and Social Care awarded the second contract two weeks later, for £122m, to supply 25m