I’ll stay with Green for my daughter, says Brady

Apprentice star is accused of hypocrisy as she resists calls to condemn shamed tycoon and insists on remaining in her post for sake of 20,000 workers – and her daughter – employed by the retail giant

Baroness Brady yesterday refused to resign as chairman of Sir Philip Green’s holding company, saying she had a ‘duty’ to remain for the sake of the 20,000 employees, including her daughter, Sophia Peschisolido, pictured, who works for Topshop

BARONESS BRADY yesterday insisted that she had a “sense of duty” to Sir Philip Green’s employees to remain as chairman of his business empire.

Breaking her silence, the business executive said it would be “the easy thing to do” to walk away from Taveta Investments, the holding company behind Sir Philip’s fashion brands.

But she said she preferred to “remain in post” for the 20,000 employees – including her daughter, who works for Topshop.

Sir Philip is accused of sexual harassment and racial abuse of staff, who received up to £1 million in payments provided they signed non disclosure agreements. Sir Philip, who denies the allegations, now faces a possible investigation after being reported to Scotland Yard by Peter Kyle, a Labour MP.

Lady Brady, who appears alongside Lord Sugar in the BBC TV series The Apprentice, has resisted calls to quit as Taveta’s chairman. She has come under fire for refusing to condemn Sir Philip despite previously being an outspoken critic of sexist men abusing positions of power.

In the first official statement addressing the crisis engulfing Sir Philip’s empire, run through the Arcadia group, Lady Brady insisted she would not quit – despite coming under “relentless pressure” to do so.

In the statement issued by her agent Gordon Poole, he said: “You want Baroness Brady to resign from Taveta but she feels a real sense of duty to the 20,000 people who work there, one of which is her daughter, to remain in post.

“I hope you would agree that walking away is the easy thing to do – staying in the role and ensuring the company is robust going forward is much harder.

“She has made significant and lasting changes to the business since she became chairman and will continue to do so, ensuring that the company maintains the standards expected of it.”

Yesterday, her personal website appeared to remove references to brand partnerships with a number of major

‘Walking away is the easy thing to do, staying and ensuring the company is robust is much harder’

companies – including Marks & Spencer, British Airways, Virgin and Goldman Sachs.

BA said in a statement: “We don’t have a brand partnership with Karren Brady and have requested this reference on her website be removed.”

Sources at M&S, Virgin, and Goldman Sachs said they were not aware of current brand partnerships being in place although M&S said she had a speaking engagement at an event within the past two years.

Mr Poole said the website “may not get changed that often” but in a statement he said: “I have checked the web site www.karrenbrady.com and all information contained on it is accurate.

“No brand is mentioned on her website that she has not worked with in her career.”

Opposite, Jess Phillips, a Labour member of the Commons women and equalities committee, calls on Lady Brady to open an internal inquiry into the payments made to staff after alleged racial and sexual harassment as well as claims of bullying and intimidation.

She told The Daily Telegraph: “Brady is the chair of Arcadia’s parent company, Taveta Investments. She was very vocal about the Harvey Weinstein allegations, she stood firmly on the side of the Metoo movement and called for a clean-up.

“Good for her, but she now has to prove what she did in her own backyard was correct or she will, at the very least, open herself to charges of hypocrisy.”

She added: “Brady should now distance herself from Green, who is still threatening to sue current and ex-employees who speak out and she should use her position to ask them to come forward without fear of reprisals. She should want to hear them in order to know how to make it better.”

Nat Whalley, executive director of Organise, a workplace campaign group with 50,000 members, said: “Karren Brady’s unusual silence about the allegations against Philip Green undermines her powerful record of challenging men who abuse their power. She’s normally outspoken on women’s rights, so to stand by Philip Green after such serious allegations of harassment seems hypocritical.”