Partners of a company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone have said they are open to a possible settlement with the government after the company was found to have breached a £122m PPE contract.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had accused PPE Medpro of providing 25 million “faulty”, non-sterile gowns during the COVID pandemic.

The High Court ruled earlier this month that it must pay back a £121.9m sum, the price of the gowns.

PPE Medpro, a consortium led by Lady Mone‘s husband Doug Barrowman, filed to enter administration earlier this month.

In a statement on Friday, Mr Barrowman said: “The consortium partners of PPE Medpro are prepared to enter into a dialogue with the administrators of the company to discuss a possible settlement with the government.”

PPE Medpro has spent £4.3m defending its position.

It said offers to settle on a no-fault basis had been made, including the remake of 25 million gowns, or a £23m cash equivalent, which were rejected.

The consortium was awarded government contracts by the former Conservative administration to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic after Lady Mone recommended it to ministers.

It insists that it provided all 25 million gowns and disputes that the gowns were not sterile.

It is understood the partners want to resolve the issue, and administrators have been urged to approach the government to reach an agreement.

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In the High Court ruling, Mrs Justice Cockerill said the gowns “were not, contractually speaking, sterile, or properly validated as being sterile”. This meant they could not be used in the NHS.

Barristers for PPE Medro claimed it had been “singled out for unfair treatment” and accused the government of “buyer’s remorse”.

It claimed the gowns had become defective because of the conditions they were kept in after being delivered. It also said the court made its ruling on a technicality.

Lady Mone branded the judgement a win for the “establishment”, while Mr Barrowman said it was a “travesty of justice”.

Baroness Mone, who created the lingerie brand Ultimo, was made a Conservative peer in 2015.

She now says she has “no wish to return” to the House of Lords.

Liz Hurley has encouraged women to check themselves for breast cancer – and warned some are not because they “are scared that it’s self-indulgent to spend time on themselves”.

The British actress and model, who has been a global ambassador for the Estee Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign for 30 years, told Sky News’ Jacquie Beltrao the demands of everyday life mean women “always put ourselves last”.

“We’re doing stuff for kids, for husbands, for mothers, for in-laws. There’s so much that we have to do that we tend to come last,” she said.

Hurley, whose grandmother died of breast cancer, said she finds it helps by thinking of breast checks as a way to “keep ourselves healthy in order to continue to take care of everybody else”.

That way, it “doesn’t seem self-indulgent or taking time away from something else, it seems really important”.

Checking one’s breasts “takes two minutes”, she added, or “about the same length of time as brushing your teeth”.

More than a third of women in the UK do not take up the first mammogram appointment they are offered, and a recent study of 500,000 women from Sweden found a similar non-attendance rate there.

More than 11,000 people die from breast cancer every year in the UK, or 31 each day, Cancer Research UK said.

That makes it the second most common form of cancer death, accounting for 7% of all cancer deaths, the charity said.

Asked whether some of the messaging had “fallen on deaf ears”, Hurley said attending screenings, which are free on the NHS, is “definitely advised”, and she suggested all women should familiarise themselves with their breasts.

In the past, the illness was seen as “a disease for older ladies. And we didn’t understand that younger women also get diagnosed. That’s been a lot in the news lately”, Hurley said.

“There appear to be more women, younger women being diagnosed. And that could well be one of the reasons is that people are more breast aware, more self-aware.”

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She told Ms Beltrao, who is a breast cancer survivor, people “have seen you on television talking about breast cancer”.

As a result of more awareness, she said, women have “begun to understand that it can never be too early to start checking your own breasts and to familiarise yourself [with them].

“When you’re younger and you’re not yet having regular mammograms, you do really have to be aware of your own breasts to be able to see if there’s a change, feel if there is a change and go to your doctor.”

Once again, the SNP looks likely to be the largest party at the Scottish Parliament next year.

Not because it has suddenly become untarnished or wildly more popular, but largely because the unionist vote is fragmented, with Reform taking centre stage and Labour losing momentum.

John Swinney’s party has endured everything a government would normally dread in recent years, from a police fraud investigation, bitter rows over gender reform, and the worst drug-death rate in Europe.

Yet, they could enter their third decade in power next May. How? It appears it will not be through a major resurgence in passion for the party or dazzling new ideas, but because their rivals have failed to seize the moment.

Swinney’s administration in Edinburgh has all the baggage of a party in power for 18 years. There are questions over their record on health, education, and the economy. The independence cause has drifted into the background with no clear path to a second vote.

But crucially, the SNP retains something its opponents lack, which is a loyal, unshakable base. They are itchy for independence, but there is no other serious, big-time contender to attach themselves to.

For many Scots, voting SNP is still an expression of identity as much as policy. That unbreakable bond has carried the party through the scandals that would have sunk others.

It appears Scottish Labour, by contrast, has squandered its best opening in a decade.

This time last year, party leader Anas Sarwar was pretty much measuring the carpets at Bute House, the official residence of the First Minister.

Sarwar was buoyed by Labour’s momentum across the UK. He was riding on their wave. But that has evaporated amid Sir Keir Starmer’s chaotic first year in Downing Street, including the winter fuel payment fiasco.

A series of avoidable blunders has damaged Labour’s credibility – and Sarwar’s prospects by association.

Reform’s rise adds to Labour’s troubles. Every vote for Nigel Farage chips away at the unionist vote in Scotland, leaving Labour and the Conservatives to fight among themselves.

Under Holyrood’s electoral system, that split could again prove decisive.

Recent polling has suggested Reform could become Holyrood’s official opposition, with Labour retaining its third place. A humiliating bronze medal for Sarwar and Co.

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Ahead of this weekend’s SNP conference in Aberdeen, Swinney told Sky News the politics swirling around Farage is “repulsive”.

I pushed him on whether that means, by extension, Reform’s growing Scottish voters are also “repulsive”.

He responded that “no amount of prompting will get me to talk about fellow members of the public in Scotland like that”.

Reform and the SNP are polar opposites. The real story is that unless Labour can rebuild trust north of the border, Swinney won’t need to do much to stay in power.

He just needs his opponents to keep tripping over their own feet.