In the summer of 2021, when a traumatised Britain was enduring a third wave of Covid infections as it struggled to emerge from the pandemic, the Conservative peer Michelle Mone posted a photograph on Instagram of herself and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, in the Mediterranean. They were on their new luxury yacht, Lady M.

Mone, 51, who attained celebrity status through her bra and lingerie company, Ultimo, and was appointed to the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2015, told her followers: “Today I’m feeling reflective. I feel so grateful to be where I am, in a beautiful part of the world with the people I love the most. It wasn’t easy. There were some real challenges, both emotionally and physically.

“Business isn’t easy. But it is rewarding.”

The social media update about the sun-soaked luxury that “Lady (Michelle) Mone OBE”, as she describes herself on her social feeds, was enjoying on deck prompted an obvious question: during a global health and economic crisis, what business had she and Barrowman found that was so rewarding?

There had been speculation some months earlier that the couple’s good fortune may have had some connection to two large PPE contracts that the government awarded to a newly formed company, PPE Medpro, during Covid’s first deadly wave. The contracts were awarded via the “VIP lane” for companies recommended by Conservative MPs and…