If you're just joining us, here's a quick breakdown of the High Court's ruling, which came down just after 10:30 this morning in London:

• Mrs Justice Cockerill found PPE Medpro, a firm linked to Baroness Michelle Mone, breached its £122m contract to supply 25m sterile surgical gowns to the NHS during the Covid pandemic
• The judge said the firm had accepted the requirement that the gowns had to comply with a "validated sterilisation process"
• However, the ruling said the gowns lacked the "notified body number" required to mark them as sterilised and that PPE Medpro had provided no evidence the process had taken place
• PPE Medpro - which filed a notice to appoint an administrator yesterday - was ordered to pay back £121,999,219 plus interest
• Mrs Justice Cockerill said the government was getting the full amount back because PPE Medpro had unsuccessfully tried to argue the gowns could be resold
• She, however, dismissed the Department of Health's claim to £8m in storage costs - the gowns were never used
• Mone's husband Doug Barrowman - who led the PPE Medpro consortium - dismissed the ruling as "a travesty of justice", arguing the government sought to "divert attention away from monumental PPE overspent"

Our reporters at the High Court are poring over the full ruling - we can now bring you a bit more from PPE Medpro's defence.

The company argued that it should have been advised on how to comply with the contract it had signed with the Department of Health and Social Care.

Mrs Justice Cockerill said that this was not the case.

The court ruled that, as per long-established legal principle, the government wasn’t required to give advice to Medpro.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter, reporting from the High Court

A huge case, involving huge sums - but it was a relatively quiet scene in the courtroom today.

With neither Barrowman nor Mone making an appearance, and only 10 or so journalists in attendance, there were plenty of spare seats at the back of the room.

The legal teams filed out swiftly after the quick judgment, leaving a few of us to pore over the full text.

We can bring you a bit more from the statement from Doug Barrowman's team.

The statement says that - although the trial found the company had not conclusively proved that a "valid sterilisation process" had been used for the gowns - such documents have been obtained since the trial.

"Since the trial, PPE Medpro has obtained this documentation by sending an investigator to China. The documentation now obtained conclusively proves that the gowns were properly sterilised in compliance with international sterilization standard EN ISO 11137."

The statement claims the process has been "an attempt to divert attention away from the government and its monumental overspend on PPE".

We've just received a statement from a spokesperson for Michelle Mone's husband, Doug Barrowman, who describes today's ruling as "a travesty of justice".

As a reminder, PPE Medpro is a consortium led by Barrowman.

"[Mrs Justice Cockerill] gave the DHSC an establishment win despite the mountain of evidence in court against such a judgement," the spokesperson says.

"Her judgment bears little resemblance to what actually took place during the month-long trial, where PPE Medpro convincingly demonstrated that its gowns were sterile.

"This judgment is a white wash of the facts and shows that justice was being seen to be done, where the outcome was always certain for the DHSC and the government. This case was simply too big for the government to lose."

Image source, Getty Images

We can now bring you further details from Mrs Justice Cockerill, who has said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) did not "effectively reject the gowns".

PPE Medpro had argued to the court that DHSC lost the right to reject the gowns due to delays.

Mrs Justice Cockerill says that the DHSC had an agent who could have inspected the gowns in China. So the rejection of the gowns – coming in December 2020, after they arrived in the UK – did not occur within a reasonable time.

While the judge has allowed DHSC to recover the "full value" of the gowns, she added that the department cannot claim £8m for storage costs.

The court finishes with some remarks from Mrs Justice Cockerill who is leaving for a new appointment.

She references the support of "excellent" counsel as well as "brilliant" back office teams.

She calls it an "immense privilege" to work with the "best team in any court in this country".

Mrs Justice Cockerill has now ordered the defendant to pay the claimant a sum of £121,999,219 in damages.

This is due by 16:00 on 15 October 2025.

Mrs Justice Cockerill is talking about the sterilisation process that the contract between the government and PPE Medpro required the gowns to go through.

Offering quite technical descriptions of what was required, the judge says that gowns had to be sterilised in such a way as to comply with a "validated sterilisation process".

PPE Medpro accepted this requirement, she says.

The gowns lacked the "notified body numbers" to mark them as sterilised, required by EU legislation, she says.

Zoe Conway
Employment correspondent, reporting from the High Court

Mrs Justice Cockerill says PPE Medpro breached the contract.

Mrs Justice Cockerill starts by saying she will be reading out a press summary for the court but underlines this "forms no part of the court's decision" and the full judgment is the only authoritative document.

She explains the case arose from a contractual dispute regarding the sale of sterile surgical gowns.

She adds that in mid-2020, during the pandemic, the government sought to procure such gowns which PPE Medpro offered to supply.

After they arrived in the UK, the Department of Health and Social Care formed the view they were not compliant with the contract.

Mrs Justice Cockerill has just walked in to the court room and started delivering her judgment.

Stay with us as we bring you all the key lines.

Image source, Getty Images

April 2020: As Covid deaths increase, the government sets up a "VIP lane" to certain firms to supply personal protective equipment to the NHS

June 2020: PPE Medpro is awarded two contracts by the government - the first for £80.85m to supply 210m face masks and a second for £122m to supply 25m sterile surgical gowns

December 2020: Lawyers for Baroness Mone say she "had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro". The same month, the Department of Health rejected the gowns

November 2021: The government releases documents confirming Baroness Mone was the "source of referral" for PPE Medpro. The files show she contacted Cabinet Office Minister Lord Agnew to refer the company to the VIP lane

December 2022: The government sues PPE Medpro claiming the medical gowns supplied "did not comply with the specification in the contract"

December 2023: Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman acknowledge their role in helping PPE Medpro secure the contract, with Mone saying she could eventually benefit from the profit of around £60m

Image source, PA Media

Born in her own words "into nothing", Michelle Mone was raised in the Dennistoun area of Glasgow. She left school at 15 with no qualifications but a determination "to make something of myself".

In 1999, she talked her way into Selfridges in London, and won a deal to sell her gel-filled Ultimo bra. She and first husband Michael re-mortgaged their house and went £70,000 into debt to develop the product.

After more than 20 years together, the Mones divorced in 2011. Michelle bought Michael out of the business and became the face and body of the brand, modelling her own lingerie.

She had been a Labour supporter but moved to the Conservatives in 2010. In 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron made her an "entrepreneurship tsar" - within weeks it was announced she was to become a Conservative peer, as Baroness Mone of Mayfair.

In 2016, Mone announced she was in a new relationship with Doug Barrowman, a billionaire businessman. They settled in the Isle of Man, and worked together in the crypto-currency sector.

She lost the Conservative whip after her links to PPE Medpro emerged and has taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords.

A High Court judge is about to rule on whether a company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone breached a £122m government contract to supply surgical gowns during the Covid pandemic.

PPE Medpro, a consortium led by Mone's husband Doug Barrowman, was awarded a contract to supply PPE to the NHS through a so-called "VIP lane".

The government confirmed in November 2021 that the peer was the "source of referral" for PPE Medpro.

But Department of Health rejected the gowns in December 2020, saying PPE Medpro "did not comply with the specification in the contract" as they were not sterile – a claim the company denies.

In an interview with the BBC in 2023, Mone apologised for initially saying she was not linked to the company.

The peer also conceded she and her family could benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit from the contract.

Mrs Justice Cockerill will rule on the case from 10:30 on Wednesday. Court records showed that PPE Medpro filed a "notice of appointment to appoint an administrator" on Tuesday.

Our reporters are in court to bring you the latest on the judgement and to break down the ruling – stick with us.