Mark Williams-Thomas in the background at the Laura Kuenssberg interview. Photograph courtesy of BBC news.
In the past two weeks, the controversy involving Baroness Michelle Mone’s connection to the PPE fiasco surfaced prominently due to the circulation of a YouTube documentary released on 10 December. The film scrutinized Mone, her spouse Douglas Barrowman, and their involvement with PPE Medpro—a company that secured over £200 million in government contracts.
Subsequent to this, the BBC broadcasted a high-profile interview where Mone confessed to deceiving the public about her role with PPE Medpro, acknowledging that she and her family stood to gain from profits funneled to an offshore trust from the company.
Mark Williams-Thomas, the ex-police officer who transitioned to an acclaimed journalist with a portfolio of notable documentaries for TV networks such as ITV and Netflix, was key in crafting the aforementioned YouTube documentary. Although the film was bankrolled by PPE Medpro, Williams-Thomas declared that he had full editorial sovereignty over its production.
Despite his strong defense of his independence during the documentary’s creation, undisclosed activities have come to light: Williams-Thomas has concurrently been conducting private investigative work for Mone, Barrowman, and PPE Medpro.
His secondary engagement has been centered around identifying the leak responsible for the string of Guardian reports that unveiled Mone and Barrowman's deception to the public—activities not made public by Williams-Thomas, likely due to confidentiality agreements.
This overlap of roles as a journalist and private detective brings forth issues relating to potential conflicts of interest and the ethical implications of this dual capacity.
This situation may also place the BBC in an uncomfortable position given Williams-Thomas’s participation in the extensively watched interview that Laura Kuenssberg conducted with Mone and Barrowman.
While the BBC maintains that the editorial authority of the interview was exclusively theirs, there is an understanding from the Guardian that Williams-Thomas played a role in the preparations of the interview, negotiating terms on behalf of the couple with the BBC, a claim the broadcaster has not openly addressed.
The emergence of these facts occurs at a precarious moment for Mone and Barrowman, as their public admission has spurred renewed scrutiny over their involvement with PPE Medpro and has fuelled discontent within the Conservative parliamentary party. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has expressed his intentions to handle the predicament with grave concern.
Amidst ongoing civil and criminal inquiries—one regarding the adequacy of the PPE supplied and the other involving accusations of conspiracy, fraud, and bribery—the couple continues to engage in a strategic public defense. Williams-Thomas’s role in these affairs, as both a defender and a documentarian, remains unquestioned by him, as he denounces any insinuations of a lack of professional integrity.
Neither Mone, Barrowman, PPE Medpro, nor Williams-Thomas’s colleague, Martin Kayes, responded to commentary requests.
Mark Williams-Thomas maintains a dual professional identity. Initially a police investigator, he now stands as an independent, greatly honored journalist, involved in producing explorative reports for esteemed broadcasters via WT Associates, his production enterprise. His second, more obscure vocation unfolds through Specialist Investigations Limited.
Their official portal lists an array of provisions for both corporate entities and private clients, varying from clandestine monitoring to electronic sweeps, unmanned aerial vehicles, and vehicle positioning systems, with a niche in detecting faithless partners “catch a cheating partner”. Under "media response," Williams-Thomas promotes assistance for those engulfed in media attention.
These services are framed as essential for both personal crises and corporate controversies. The importance of a measured response is emphasized, weaving in the company’s expertise in navigating public scrutiny or scandal, as noted on the website.
Moreover, the firm declares that it aids individuals implicated in criminal inquiries by taking a pre-emptive stance to gather proof that may weaken the charges against their clients.
At the helm of this investigative operation is Williams-Thomas with his colleague, Kayes, recognized for his expertise in cybersecurity. Kayes related to a journalist how Williams-Thomas came into association with Mone and Barrowman, Isle of Man mansion dwellers, via their security consultant.
Kayes recounted his tenure with PPE Medpro starting May 24 while noting that Williams-Thomas had contributed even earlier.
These connections surfaced after the Guardian reported on the couple's concealed involvement with PPE Medpro, conflicting with their previous denials. The revelation included Barrowman's substantial profits from PPE Medpro, with a significant sum moved to an offshore trust for Mone and their children. Kayes suggested to the reporter that information in the Guardian about Medpro likely stemmed from an insider leak.
Essentially, their task was to pinpoint this alleged whistleblower. With Williams-Thomas joining to manage possible leaks related to PPE Medpro, their work gradually branched into media matters. Kayes detailed how their involvement grew due to the couple's lack of self-preservation skills, particularly in public relations. This expansion of duties included handling sensitive aspects of their private inquiry work, encompassing both the civil and criminal legal issues facing Mone and Barrowman.
Transparency and Independence
In a YouTube documentary, Williams-Thomas did concede funding from PPE Medpro but has continually defended the piece's impartiality. He's asserted his forthrightness about his roles as an investigator, presenter, and producer throughout the documentary process — positions he's familiarly managed across various projects over the years.
Yet, it seems he omitted the fact that he was acting as a hired private detective when initially reaching out for documentary collaboration.
Williams-Thomas contacted the Good Law Project, a group known for revealing various PPE controversies, in April. He discussed creating a documentary on the government's fast-track system for politically recommended firms like PPE Medpro and mentioned interest from broadcasters like ITV, Channel 4, and Netflix.
He expressed interest in featuring the Good Law Project within this work. Subsequently, Kayes broached a mutual information exchange with the organization. Over the following months, Kayes remained in conversation with a journalist from the Good Law Project, updating them on the situation.
In July, following a PPE Medpro statement regarding their "investigative team" delving into PPE procurement, the reporter revisited Kayes, who shared that Williams-Thomas had initially been engaged to scrutinize a suspect Barrowman believed to be leaking information to the Guardian. What started as an investigative task soon transformed into a public relations effort with Baroness Mone and Douglas Barrowman, Kayes explained.He stated, "We are simultaneously conducting an inquiry and producing a documentary. We initially had some doubts about public perception, but we've addressed those by agreeing to proceed with our findings regardless of whether they're beneficial to the subject or not.
The documentary maintains its independence, and we have yet to reach out to other PPE providers in relation to this matter. In terms of the investigation, however, we are compensated by the company to examine the legal actions, both civil and criminal, filed against them."
The Good Law Project became wary of Williams-Thomas and Kayes once it became apparent that they were private detectives, opting not to engage further with them.
Kayes has recently informed a journalist that Williams-Thomas is still affiliated with PPE Medpro, though his precise role and the capacity in which he appeared in Portugal last week—when Mone and Barrowman were interviewed by the BBC—remain ambiguous.
In the program's opening segment, Williams-Thomas is seen making his way into the room and positioning himself immediately behind Mone and Barrowman. Responding to an inquiry from the Guardian, Williams-Thomas cited the duo's long-term association with the BBC and mentioned he had recommended they conduct a direct, sit-down interview subsequent to his YouTube documentary, as the approaches of both platforms are distinctly different.
In a recent exchange with the Guardian, the former police officer, now a private investigator and journalist, sought commentary. Williams-Thomas disclosed he had encountered an "NCA report," which he believed shed light on the leaks to the Guardian, and he requested an official statement, adding, "I am pursuing this inquiry based on my own interest in journalism."