Who is Michelle Mone's husband, Doug Barrowman? Baroness likened to Prince Andrew after facing flak for her BBC interview

On Sunday, December 17, 2023, Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, sat down for an interview with BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, where they admitted to making a profit of £60 million from selling PPE to the UK government during the pandemic.

According to the BBC, Barrowman, a 58-year-old Scottish businessman and founder of the Knox Group of Companies, claimed that he led the PPE Medpro consortium, even though he is not listed as having any connection to the company. PPE Medpro was the company that was awarded government contracts to supply PPE during the pandemic.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, faced immense backlash after his 2019 Newsnight interview (Image via Getty Images)

The recent interview is reminiscent of Prince Andrew's 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis of BBC, where he tried to defend the allegations that he had s*x with a 17-year-old girl trafficked by convicted s*x trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. He also attempted to defend his 20-year-old-friendship with Epstein

According to the LA Times, the fallout from the interview was so bad that just four days after the interview aired, Prince Andrew announced that he would be suspending his public duties.

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Michelle Mone "was always going to benefit": Husband Doug Barrowman opens up about involvement with PPE Medpro

Doug Barrowman, aged 58, is the founder of the Knox Group of Companies. According to the company website, the Knox Group has assets worth almost £3 billion and employs over 350 people. He is also an investor in Ve Interactive, Aston Ventures, and Equi Capital.

Barrowman was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He was a graduate of Glasgow University, with a degree in accountancy. He started his career as a businessman in 1999 when he founded Aston Ventures. In 2008, he founded The Knox Group of Companies.

He married Michelle Mone in 2020, during which they started dealing with PPE Medpro. According to The Guardian, Barrowman and Mone were implicated in 2020 and again in 2022, for lobbying for government PPE contracts and reaping £60 million as profit.

Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman apologized in the recent interview for denying their involvement with the PPE Medpro deal for more than three years. During the pandemic, PPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth more than £200 million to provide PPE through a "VIP lane".

In November 2021, it was revealed that Mone was the "source of referral" for PPE Medpro getting the VIP lane. Mone denied any connection, but in the interview with Laura Kuenssberg, revealed that she had made over £60 million in profit.

Michelle Mone also revealed that she and her children were beneficiaries of the trusts where the money is currently held. In the interview, she stated:

"If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children."

However, she clarified that contrary to popular claims, neither she nor her children had spent the money in the trust.

In the same interview, Doug Barrowman also added:

"[Mone] was always going to benefit, and my family will benefit in due course… her family benefit, my family benefit. That's what you do when you are in a privileged position of making money."

Barrowman reportedly received £45.8 million in his private offshore accounts from the £200 million government contracts for PPE during the pandemic. As per the BBC, the couple had been under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) for the past two-and-a-half years, for conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery.

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Netizens compare Michelle Mone's interview to Prince Andrew's disastrous 2019 interview

Netizens took to X (formerly Twitter) to troll Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman for their interview, with many even comparing it to Prince Andrew's infamous 2019 Newsnight interview.

Both Mone and Barrowman told the BBC that they were "upfront, straight-up people". They also apologized for not telling the truth about their involvement with PPE Medpro, saying:

"We both regret that we didn't."

Michelle Mone also said that she "wasn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes", and she didn't mean to fool anyone. According to the BBC, Mone is currently on a leave of absence from Parliament.