Billionaire named in U.K. #MeToo scandal
Sir Philip Green denies claims of sex harassment
• A British politician used Parliament’s freespeech guarantee Thursday to identify fashion mogul Sir Philip Green as the businessman at the centre of a British #MeToo scandal who had secured a court order barring the media from revealing his identity.
Green, whose Arcadia Group owns numerous fashion brands including Topshop, which has retail space in Canada, was identified by Labour politician Lord Peter Hain following two days of speculation over the name of the man who had taken out an injunction against The Daily Telegraph to stop it reporting allegations of sexual harassment and racial abuse against him. It was also alleged he had attempted to gag former staff with nondisclosure agreements.
Hain said he had been contacted by someone “intimately involved in the case” and felt a “duty” to reveal the name using parliamentary privilege.
In a statement issued after Hain spoke, Green said, “To the extent that it is suggested that I have been guilty of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour, I categorically and wholly deny these allegations.”
The Court of Appeal issued the publication prohibition this week, saying the five alleged victims had been “compromised” because they signed non-disclosure agreements as part of settlement packages in which they received substantial payments.
The injunction prevented the media from naming Green, but lawmakers’ words in Parliament are immune from legal action under an exemption known as parliamentary privilege.
Following Hain’s comments, there were calls for Green to be stripped of his knighthood and for a crackdown on the use of nondisclosure agreements by “serial offenders” to prevent complaints against them being made public.
The Telegraph has spent the past eight months investigating serious allegations made against a leading businessman, and the lengths he has gone to cover up the claims. However, on Tuesday the newspaper was prevented from revealing details of the non-disclosure agreements. The intervention made it illegal, outside Parliament or in reports of parliamentary proceedings, to disclose the businessman’s identity or to identify the companies involved, as well as what he is accused of doing or how much he paid his alleged victims.
It was the latest twist in a legal fight that began in July and saw the Court of Appeal rule that the confidentiality of contracts was more important than freedom of speech. It overturned a High Court ruling which found that publication of the allegations would be overwhelmingly in the public interest.
As well as reigniting the #MeToo debate, the gagging of The Telegraph has renewed controversy about the use of injunctions to limit press freedom. The practice has been under scrutiny since it emerged last year that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein used them to keep alleged sex abuse victims from speaking out.
Green, 66, is the chairman of Arcadia Group, whose other brands include Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge.
Long a fixture in the front row at London Fashion week and frequently photographed in the company of Kate Moss and other supermodels, the billionaire has drawn criticism in the past over his business practices.
In 2015, he sold department store chain BHS for one pound after 15 years of ownership. BHS collapsed the next year, leaving a gaping hole in its pension fund. Green elicited further disapproval when it emerged he took hundreds of millions in dividends and other payments while he owned the business.
“I think that today we have proven that wealth and power and arrogance will not always provide you with cover,” said Jess Phillips, a Labour MP who sits on the British government’s women and equalities committee, after Green’s identity was revealed by Hain. “Whilst people can be silenced with money, as is often the case, I am pleased that actually that has its limits and that we respect the spirit of the law when people like this are revealed.”
In a statement issued last night, Green said: “I am not commenting on anything that has happened in court or was said in Parliament today. To the extent that it is suggested that I have been guilty of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour, I categorically and wholly deny these allegations.
“Arcadia and I take accusations and grievances from employees very seriously and in the event that one is raised, it is thoroughly investigated. Arcadia employs more than 20,000 people and in common with many large businesses sometimes receives formal complaints from employees. In some cases these are settled with the agreement of all parties and their legal advisers. These settlements are confidential so I cannot comment further on them.”
WEALTH AND POWER AND ARROGANCE WILL NOT ALWAYS PROVIDE YOU WITH COVER.