The UK Government will "not give up" on recouping the £145 million due in compensation from a PPE firm linked to Michelle Mone.
The firm PPE Medpro, linked to the Baroness, failed to meet the deadline to repay the sum last week.
The consortium, led by Lady Mone's husband Doug Barrowman, was sued by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) after it was found to have breached a contract for surgical gowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a ruling earlier this month, Mrs Justice Cockerill found that the gowns “were not, contractually speaking, sterile, or properly validated as being sterile”, which meant they could not be used in the NHS.
She ordered them to pay back £121,999,219.20 and interest by 4pm on Wednesday, but the day before the ruling, PPE Medpro entered administration.
PPE Medpro was also ordered to pay interest, which it is understood stands at £23,673,029.20, meaning the total figure owed is around £145.6 million.
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Interest will accrue at a rate of 8% per year from Thursday until the money is paid.
Experts warned the money may never be repaid.
But speaking to Scottish journalists in Downing Street on Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “We are not going to give up on the money.”
He added: “We’ve been really clear about getting our money back, whether its Michelle Mone or anybody else.
“Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, was very clear about this in opposition. We intend to get as much money back as possible because that is the taxpayers money and we want it back and we will go after every penny of it.”
A spokesperson for the consortium previously said that it was prepared to “enter into a dialogue” with the Government with a view to a “possible settlement”, but said earlier on Wednesday that it had not received a response.
They said: “On Friday October 11, it was made clear that the consortium partners of PPE Medpro are prepared to enter into discussions with the Government, via the administrators, to reach a possible settlement.
“This was made very public, and the Government was made aware of it.
“Yet, very disappointingly, the Government has made no effort to respond or seek to enter into discussions.”
It is understood that the consortium remains keen to engage with the Government on a settlement.
Lady Mone then said on X the day before the ruling that the Government had made her and Mr Barrowman the “poster couple for the PPE scandal” and claimed it had turned down multimillion-pound offers to settle the case.
She also then criticised Mrs Justice Cockerill’s ruling, calling it a win for the “establishment”, while Mr Barrowman said it was a “travesty of justice”.
PPE Medpro still insists that it provided all 25 million gowns and disputes that the gowns were not sterile, and has also stated that the court made its ruling on a technicality.
Lady Mone, who created the lingerie brand Ultimo, which she sold in 2014, was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron in 2015.
She has faced calls to relinquish her peerage following the ruling from several high-profile politicians, but said in a letter to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch that she has “no wish to return” to the House of Lords as a Conservative peer.
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