Karren Brady quits as chair of Sir Philip Green’s retail group

BARONESS KARREN Brady has resigned from Sir Philip Green’s retail empire just weeks after insisting she would stay in the post despite a harassment scandal.

The star of The Apprentice television series has stepped down from her position as the chairwoman of Taveta Investments, which is the holding company which owns Arcadia group.

Non-executive director Sharon Brown, a former interim chairwoman of McColl’s, has also left the company.

Lady Brady was accused of hypocrisy after she refused to step down earlier this month, despite the emergence of harassment claims against Sir Philip.

The businesswoman, who is also the vice-chairwoman of West Ham Football Club, has previously been an outspoken critic of abuses of power in the workplace and was among those to condemn film producer Harvey Weinstein, who has faced a series of sexual harassment claims.

Fellow television business personality Duncan Bannatyne, who is known for his appearances on the BBC series, Dragons’ Den, condemned her continued employment at Taveta as “disgusting”.

Lady Brady defended her position, and maintained that she had a “sense of duty” to employees at retail chains such as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Burton. But her sudden departure, which was announced yesterday, presents another major setback for retail tycoon Sir Philip, who is under investigation by US police over an allegation of groping as well as facing renewed calls for his knighthood to be taken away. In a statement, Taveta said that it was “in active discussions” with potential replacements for the two outgoing board members. Lady Brady joined the board of Taveta in 2010 and took over as its chairwoman two years ago following the resignation of the former chairman Anthony Grabiner over the scandal over the closure of BHS, which saw the High Street’s chain of stores close in 2016 with multi-million pound pensions deficits.