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Labour has called for an investigation into a £50,000 donation made to the Conservative Party by Pulse Accounting, an accounting firm tied to Baroness Michelle Mone’s husband, Doug Barrowman.
This donation, made in October 2020, has raised eyebrows due to the firm’s connections to Barrowman, who is already under scrutiny for his involvement with PPE Medpro – a company that received substantial government contracts under questionable circumstances.
Pulse Accounting, at the time of the donation, was under the control of Daniel Clay, a business associate of Barrowman.
Analysis by The Times and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reveals that Pulse Accounting was part of the Knox Group, Barrowman’s financial services conglomerate.
Barrowman and Mone are already facing a National Crime Agency investigation concerning £203 million worth of PPE contracts awarded to PPE Medpro, a firm invested in by Barrowman. The investigation follows revelations that some of the supplied PPE was unusable in the NHS, prompting the Department of Health and Social Care to seek compensation.
Further complicating matters, documents suggest that an offshore entity, Perree (PTC) Limited, linked to Barrowman, acquired Pulse Accounting years before the donation was made.
Perree is registered in the British Virgin Islands and is managed by employees of the Knox Group. This company is also tied to a £20 million property in Belgravia, previously occupied by Mone and Barrowman, and has financial links to PPE Medpro.
Under UK election laws, donations must originate from UK-registered companies or individuals on the electoral roll. Barrowman, a resident of the Isle of Man, is not eligible to donate in his own name. Despite this, he has previously used UK-based companies within the Knox Group to channel significant donations to the Conservative Party, totalling over £170,000 between 2017 and 2019 through Lancaster Knox.
The £50,000 donation from Pulse Accounting is particularly suspicious given the company’s modest financial standing, with assets totalling just £49,000 at the year’s end. Election law expert Gavin Millar KC asserts that there are grounds to investigate whether the funds genuinely originated from Pulse’s UK activities. He highlighted the unusual size of the donation for a company with such limited assets and no history of political contributions.
Anneliese Dodds, Labour Party chairwoman, has called for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to address these concerns. She accused the Conservatives of accepting donations with minimal scrutiny, emphasizing Labour’s commitment to cleaning up political finance and eradicating “Tory sleaze.”
Barrowman, who had a previous £2,400 donation rejected due to his Isle of Man residency, declined to comment on the latest findings. Daniel Clay also did not respond to requests for comment. Baroness Mone, through her lawyers, denied involvement in the PPE Medpro deal but later admitted potential indirect financial benefits from the contracts via family trusts.
A Conservative Party spokesman stated that all donations are declared transparently to the Electoral Commission and comply fully with the law. He defended fundraising as a legitimate part of the democratic process, suggesting that the alternative—taxpayer-funded political campaigns—would divert funds from essential public services.
As Barrowman and Mone embark on a public relations campaign to salvage their reputations, these new revelations add to the growing pressure on the Conservative Party to clarify its stance on the ethical handling of political donations and its connections to questionable financial activities.
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