Claims are ‘tipping point’ for knighthood

THE latest allegations about Sir Philip Green could be the “tipping point” that will cost him his knighthood, it was claimed yesterday.

A former member of the Cabinet Office honours forfeiture committee said the latest claims “add to the list” of reasons for stripping him of the honour.

Sir Philip had previously survived calls for him to lose the honour after the collapse of BHS with a £571million pensions “black hole”.

On Thursday, Lord Hain, the former Labour minister, used parliamentary privilege to identify the Arcadia chairman as the individual behind a legal injunction preventing The Daily Telegraph from publishing “confidential information” from five employees.

Sir Philip has “categorically and wholly” denied any “unlawful sexual or racist behaviour”.

However, the Government is under pressure to ask the forfeiture committee to examine whether he should lose his knighthood, awarded by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2006.

The former committee member, who asked not to be named, told The Daily Telegraph: “It clearly does not reflect well on a person who has already done things that ought to have put his knighthood at risk. It adds to the list. It might be the tipping point.”

The Prime Minister’s deputy official spokesman said yesterday: “The committee is independent and they constantly review evidence which is a matter for them.”

Sir Philip, 66, was heavily criticised for selling BHS, once the jewel in his business crown, for £1 to double bankrupt Dominic Chappell in 2015.

The troubled retailer collapsed in April 2016 with the loss of 11,000 jobs and a £571 million pension deficit. A Commons motion then called for Sir Philip to be stripped of his title and labelled him a “billionaire spiv” who “took the rings from BHS’S fingers”.

Sir Philip eventually managed to cling on to his title, making an offer to put in £363million of his own money to help fund the pensions gap.

The forfeiture committee looks into cases where an individual has brought the honours system into disrepute.

People who have lost their honours include Fred Goodwin, the disgraced bank chief, and the entertainer Rolf Harris, convicted of sex offences.