Sir Philip Green ‘could still lose knighthood’ one year after BHS collapse
Billionaire warned that he could still be stripped of his knighthood and faces further questions from MPs, 12 months after the high street store folded.
Sir Philip Green has been warned that he could still be stripped of his knighthood and faces further questions from MPs, one year after the collapse of BHS.
Veteran Labour MP Frank Field said Sir Philip has not done enough to keep his title amid lingering concerns over the £363 million settlement struck between the retail tycoon and The Pensions Regulator.
“Sir Philip Green remains on the hook,” he told the Press Association.
“When Parliament comes back from the election we need to pursue the charge sheet from The Pensions Regulator against him and what the Pensions Regulator got in return,” said Mr Field.
“Once we have done that, we will realise how inadequate his settlement was.
“He has not done enough to hold on to his knighthood.
“It’s rather good that Mrs May is waiting for all the reports to come in before she makes a recommendation to the honours forfeiture committee. The case against Sir Philip will continue in the new Parliament,” said Mr Field.
The comments come almost a year to the day since the department store chain plunged into administration, impacting 11,000 jobs and around 19,000 pension holders.
Mr Field, who chairs the Work and Pensions Committee, said a new Government bill was now needed to shore up the law surrounding pensions in order to shield assets.
“We must have a proper pensions bill in the new Parliament to protect these assets,” he added.
“We cannot rely on The Pensions Regulator to protect these assets. We have got to think nimbly to find a way to protect these assets that doesn’t bring down a firm with it.”
Sir Philip agreed to pay £363 million to settle the BHS pension scheme in February, less than the £571 million deficit the firm was left with when it went bust in April last year.
He said the move represented a ”significantly better” outcome than if the scheme entered the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
The billionaire boss of Arcadia made a voluntary personal cash payment of £343 million towards improved benefits to the pension scheme members, and made available an additional £20 million towards implementation costs.
It came after the Topshop owner was grilled by MPs over the sale of the chain, which he owned for 15 years before offloading it for £1 to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell in 2015.
Mr Chappell, who may still face a criminal investigation, reiterated his apology to the BHS staff and said he has “nothing to hide”.
He said: “It was not any of our doing, the pension deficit in BHS. Green took hundreds of millions out in 10 years, made little or no investment back, and stuck two fingers up at the pension trustees for 10 years.
“He has paid back only a fraction of what he took out.
“The Government should also take a long hard look at its own policies and be asking the question how has this happened and why there are over 5,000 major companies which have massive pensions problems.
“The pension policies are not fit for purpose.”
Asked whether he had learnt any lessons from the BHS debacle, Mr Chappell added: “Don’t have any thing to do with Green, bring in new blood into the senior management to get honesty, loyalty and a fresh view on what is really going on at the top.”
Sir Philip Green declined to comment.
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