Business
Mone’s husband Barrowman says chase our partners for the money
A company linked to Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman passed most of the money it received from the government for personal protective equipment (PPE) to other firms, according to a spokesperson for Mr Barrowman.
On Wednesday a judge ordered PPE Medpro to repay £122m as the gowns it supplied did not meet sterility certification standards.
However, £83m of that was paid to other companies and there was a “very strong case” for the administrator to chase them for the money, the spokesperson said.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said his department would seek to “recover everything we can”.
When Mr Barrowman spoke to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg in 2023, he said PPE Medpro was set up as a consortium with companies called Loudwater Trade and Finance and Eric Beare Associates.
In that interview, Mr Barrowman said: “The British government would have preferred to always trade with a UK company, so we created PPE Medpro as a UK business, so that the three partners could provide PPE to the British government.”
Baroness Mone, a Conservative peer at the time, used her contacts to enter the company into the “VIP lane” to get preferential access to government contracts.
Mr Barrowman’s spokesperson claimed that the company itself did not undertake the technical work of liaising with manufacturers in China, including quality control and sterility assurance levels.
The other parties distanced themselves from PPE Medpro once the government began legal action, and only communicated through lawyers, the spokesperson said.
A High Court judgement on Wednesday ordered PPE Medpro to repay £122m to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), having ruled that the gowns the company supplied did not meet sterility certification standards.
The day before, the directors of PPE Medpro started the process of putting the company into administration. Administrators will seek to wind the company up and try to recover as much money as possible for creditors.
However, the company only has £666,000 of assets, so it is unlikely to be able to repay the DHSC in full.
The government has said it will work closely with the administrators.
Despite Baroness Mone not being a shareholder or director of the company, some politicians have called on her to repay the money personally.
The spokesperson for Mr Barrowman said: “It seems incredibly unfair that all the attention has focused on Doug Barrowman when there was a consortium.
“There is a very strong case for the administrator [of PPE Medpro] to chase the other consortium members whose companies received huge funds.”
However, Mr Barrowman has admitted receiving a large share of the proceeds himself.
In his 2023 interview, he told the BBC he had received around £60m from PPE Medpro.
Baroness Mone said that a share of that sum was paid into a trust in the Isle of Man, of which she and her children are beneficiaries, and so potentially stand to receive the money.
Loudwater’s parent company, Loudwater Holdings Ltd, is based in North London. It had net assets of more than £55m, according to its latest accounts, and a turnover of £95m.
The National Crime Agency is investigating the PPE Medpro case. It declined to comment on whether it was also looking into the other members of the consortium.
Loudwater declined to comment. Eric Beare Associates did not respond to requests for comment.
The DHSC did not say whether it would pursue other members of the consortium.
NOTE: An earlier version of this story attributed the quotations to a spokesperson for PPE Medpro. They later requested to be described as a spokesperson for Mr Barrowman.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has approved a fresh increase in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), raising the cost for both domestic consumers and commercial users.
According to the notification issued, the LPG price has been increased by Rs7.39 per kilogram, setting the new rate at Rs209 per kg for December. As a result, the price of a domestic LPG cylinder has risen by Rs87.21, bringing the new price to Rs2,466.10.
In November, the price of LPG stood at Rs201 per kg, while the domestic cylinder was priced at Rs2,378.89.
The latest price hike is expected to put additional pressure on households already grappling with rising living costs nationwide.
Business
Private sector data: Over 2 lakh private companies closed in 5 years; govt flags monitoring for suspicious cases – The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said that over the past five years, more than two lakh private companies have been closed in India.According to data provided by Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, a total of 2,04,268 private companies were shut down between 2020-21 and 2024-25 due to amalgamation, conversion, dissolution or being struck off from official records under the Companies Act, 2013.Regarding the rehabilitation of employees from these closed companies, the minister said there is currently no proposal before the government, as reported by PTI. In the same period, 1,85,350 companies were officially removed from government records, including 8,648 entities struck off till July 16 this fiscal year. Companies can be removed from records if they are inactive for long periods or voluntarily after fulfilling regulatory requirements.On queries about shell companies and their potential use in money laundering, Malhotra highlighted that the term “shell company” is not defined under the Companies Act, 2013. However, he added that whenever suspicious instances are reported, they are shared with other government agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department for monitoring.A major push to remove inactive companies took place in 2022-23, when 82,125 companies were struck off during a strike-off drive by the corporate affairs ministry.The minister also highlighted the government’s broader policy to simplify and rationalize the tax system. “It is the stated policy of the government to gradually phase out exemptions and deductions while rationalising tax rates to create a simple, transparent, and equitable tax regime,” he said. He added that several reforms have been undertaken to promote investment and ease of doing business, including substantial reductions in corporate tax rates for existing and new domestic companies.
Pakistan’s textile exports surged to $6.4 billion during the first four months of the 2025-26 fiscal year, marking the highest trade volume for the sector in this period.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), value-added textile sectors were key contributors to the growth.
Knitwear exports reached $1.9 billion, while ready-made garments contributed $1.4 billion.
Significant increases were observed across several commodities: cotton yarn exports rose 7.74% to $238.9 million, and raw cotton exports jumped 100%, reaching $2.6 million from zero exports the previous year.
Other notable gains included tents, canvas, and tarpaulins, up 32.34% to $53.48 million, while ready-made garments increased 5.11% to $1.43 billion.
Exports of made-up textile articles, excluding towels and bedwear, rose 4.17%, totaling $274.75 million.
The report also mentioned that the growth in textile exports is a result of improved global demand and stability in the value of the Pakistani rupee.
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