Controversial businesswoman Michelle Mone, alongside husband Doug Barrowman, were given a grilling by Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC journalist's Sunday morning television programme.

The pair, having already released a documentary film, are attempting to clear their names after a PPE scandal involving a firm they both had deep ties to.

Here's what you need to know to get yourself caught up.

Who is Michelle Mone?

Raised in the East End of Glasgow, Baroness Mone first came to prominence in 1999 with the launch of the Ultimo bra.

She would later claim Julia Roberts wore one of the bras in Erin Brockovich.

Baroness Mone and her company MJM International would go on to launch a range of diet pills, as well as partnering with the likes of ASDA, Debenham’s and doing modelling campaigns with Kelly Brook, Gemma Atkinson and Mel B of the Spice Girls.

Read More: Michelle Mone admits she will benefit from PPE money but denies buying a yacht

How did she get involved in politics?

The businesswoman threatened to leave Scotland if the SNP won the 2007 Holyrood election and was a firm advocate for a No vote in the 2014 independence referendum.

Shortly thereafter she was appointed to an unpaid role as the Conservative government’s ‘start-up czar’, which drew backlash from other entrepreneurs.

Mone was given a peerage by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, but in the following six years spoke just five times and submitted 22 written questions.

What's the PPE scandal all about?

Cast your mind back to the Covid pandemic.

At the outset supplies of PPE (personal protective equipment) were low and the government was left scrambling to replace them.

Under ordinary circumstances, contracts to supply equipment to the NHS would have to be publicly tendered but that was abandoned to prioritise getting the protective gear as quickly as possible.

There was a 'VIP lane' for recommended by MPs, peers and other politically connected people, with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) handing out £12bn to such companies.

Read More: Michelle Mone: The rise and fall of Scotland's bra queen

One was PPE Medpro, which was linked to Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman.

Though it hadn't even been incorporated yet, the baroness told Michael Gove that her "team in Hong Kong" could supply PPE.

Medpro was awarded two contracts, one worth over £80m for masks and another worth £120m for gowns.

Though the masks were used, the gowns were found not to be up to standard and were never used by the NHS.

How does that involve Baroness Mone?

The Herald: Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

When the scandal first came to light, Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman threatened to sue for defamation anyone who linked them to Medpro.

The pair claimed they had no connection to the company, something they've both now admitted was a lie.

By their own calculations the profit margin for Medpro was around 30% and Mr Barrowman earned upwards of £60m - despite the fact the gowns were never used and never could have been.

The money was put into a number of offshore trusts, including £28.8m transferred to one registered on the Isle of Man of which Mone and her children are beneficiaries.

The pair's shared home was raided in April 2022 as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into Medpro, while a separate investigation into standards is taking place in the House of Lords.

What do Mone and Barrowman say?

They maintain they've done nothing wrong, that they were given a contract to supply items and fulfilled it.

The DHSC since issued breach of contract proceedings and the National Crime Agency is investigating.

Baroness Mone has claimed the money is not hers, it belongs to her husband, though admitted she'll eventually be a beneficiary of it.

Is this her first controversy?

The Herald: Michelle Mone allegedly used her in-house contacts to join the VIP lane for PPE contracts

Far from it. Remember that bra from Erin Brockovich? There's no evidence Julia Roberts wore an Ultimo bra in the film, and indeed it's been denied by people who worked on the film.

Baroness Mone claimed the actress mentioned it while on stage accepting her Oscar - she did not.

A former employee, Scott Kilday, was awarded £15,000 in compensation in 2014 after discovering a plant pot in his office had been bugged, ostensibly due to fears he was planning to leave and work with Mone’s ex-husband, Michael.

MJM’s ‘Trimsecrets’ diet pills, produced in collaboration with Jan de Vries, were described as having “no scientific basis or rationale” and while the entrepreneur had claimed their efficacy had been proven in clinical trials when questioned by The Guardian, Mone stated that the trial had in fact been a 63-person questionnaire, for which she was unable to produce the results.

Her business record has also been questioned.

Despite claims she was worth £50m, MJM made losses of £780,000 in the 2013 financial year before passing its assets to its parent company, Ultimo Brands, which also made a loss.

Mone resigned as a director of MJM in August 2015. It was wound up in 2021 with debts of over £300,000.

Her UTan range, launched through UBeauty Global, was claimed by Mone to have cost £1m to develop but the company’s first set of accounts showed it to be worth less than £25,000. 

She and partner Doug Barrowman launched a cryptocurrency in 2018 hoping to raise $80m, with the baroness describing herself as “one of the biggest experts in Cryptocurrency and Blockchain”. By August, The Sunday Times reported that the project had “flopped” and all investors had been refunded.