The Covid Inquiry has rejected Michelle Mone’s ‘core participants’ bid – and quite right, too.

It comes more than a year too late, and under suspicious circumstances (as far as This Writer is concerned).

Baroness Mone, together with husband Douglas Barrowman, applied to become ‘core participants’ in the inquiry on February 27 – the day after its decision to hear evidence in private about their involvement in the supply of unsuitable personal protective equipment (PPE) was greeted with outrage by the public.

I find this suspicious as this status would have allowed them to see documents and other evidence, make statements and ask questions of other witnesses – granting them access to information they would not otherwise have seen. This would have invalidated the inquiry’s reasons for hearing evidence about them in private, as it had been requested by the National Crime Agency in order to avoid prejudice to its investigation into their involvement.

The fact that their application came the day after the announcement that evidence about them would be heard in private – and around 15 months after the November 2023 deadline for such applications – suggests that they want access to the NCA’s evidence about them.

I don’t give much credence to the claim that they fear they “may be subject to explicit and significant criticism”; they already have been subjected to that kind of treatment, for several years.

And their concerns about the NCA’s conduct are not matters for the Covid inquiry, which is focusing on the behaviour of government ministers rather than the companies to which they offered contracts. Any such concerns would need to be addressed if any criminal prosecutions arise from that organisation’s inquiries.

As it is, the inquiry has already unearthed scandalous information about the way PPE was sourced using the illegal so-called VIP lane. Here‘s the BBC:

New research for the Covid inquiry found almost a third of government contracts to buy masks, gowns and other equipment went through the VIP lane.

Data showed that, of the 430 offers made in that way, 115 were successful. Those firms were 17 times more likely to win a contract than those outside the VIP lane system.

Peter Munro, policy manager at the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, a group made up of procurement, transparency and contract specialists, said the latest data “confirmed some of our worst fears”.

“PPE procured through the high priority lane was 80% more expensive than PPE procured through other channels, and half if it was unfit for purpose,” he said.

Baroness Hallett, chairing the inquiry, has been criticised for refusing to take evidence directly from representatives of firms that supplied PPE.

But if it means we get a better idea of how badly our public money was misused, then This Writer, for one, is delighted with her approach.