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Sir Philip Green will hold onto knighthood for years

Lauretta Roberts
01 February 2017

Sir Philip Green, who faced calls from MPs for his knighthood to be withdrawn following the collapse of BHS, will retain the honour while investigations by the Insolvency Service and the Pensions Regulator continue. The latter is expected to last for years.

The Honours Forfeiture Committee has informed MP Frank Field, who has been Green's most vociferous critic and who co-chaired the parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of BHS, that the call to strip Green of his knighthood would be "carefully considered" but no action would be taken while the investigations were ongoing.

According to The Times Sir Jonathan Stephens, chairman of the committee, wrote to Field explaining his stance: "I believe it will be important to ensure any consideration of Sir Philip’s case by the forfeiture committee should have the benefit of the findings of the independent inquiries into BHS by the relevant regulators," he wrote.

Field accepted the decision as fair and told the newspaper: "I don’t think justice delayed is justice denied."

Green, who owns the Arcadia empire which includes among others the Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton brands, was awarded his knighthood for services to retail in 2006. He acquired BHS in 2000 for £200m and his family took dividends worth £586m from the business in the early years of his ownership.

However by 2015 the business was severely in debt and Green sold it for £1 to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell. In 2016 the business collapsed leaving 11,000 workers unemployed and thousands of pensioners out of pocket due to a £571m pension fund deficit.

Green was called before MPs last summer to explain his role in the business's collapse and at that stage promised to "sort" the pension problem. MPs unanimously voted in favour of stripping him of his knighthood though the decision to do so rests with the Honours Forfeiture Committee, which has decided to delay its decision until investigations into Green are complete.

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