NOT ONE MP SPOKE UP FOR PHIL THE SPIV
Commons votes unanimously to strip Sir Shifty of his gong
SIR Philip Green was facing humiliation last night after MPs voted to strip the ‘billionaire spiv’ of his knighthood.
During an extraordinary threehour attack in the Commons, MPs accused the self-proclaimed King of Retail of beating BHS ‘black and blue’ and taking ‘the rings from its fingers’. The tycoon was compared to Napoleon and crooked magnate Robert Maxwell, accused of ‘shaming British capitalism’ and likened to a rat deserting a sinking ship.
In a sign of how toxic Green’s reputation has become, not a single MP was prepared to speak up in support of a man who has spent decades being fawned over by politicians.
After lining up to hurl insults at the tycoon, MPs unanimously voiced their support for an amendment to strip him of his cherished knighthood – awarded a decade ago for services to retail. The vote had been allowed by Speaker John Bercow
after 116 MPs from all parties rushed to sign the amendment before the debate.
Although the motion – the first to ever remove an honour – is not binding, it piles huge pressure on the secretive Honours Forfeiture Committee to strip Green of his honour. Last night one MP made it even harder to ignore after pledging to write to the committee to make a formal complaint against Green.
Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrats’ business spokesman, said: ‘ I’m backing calls for his honour to be removed. I will be making a formal complaint and I urge my fellow MPs to join me.’
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘There will obviously be a decision potentially made at some stage by the forfeiture committee.’
One of the last people to be stripped of his knighthood was disgraced former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin, who was accused of driving the bank to the verge of collapse and lost his honour in 2012.
Earlier this year, Green was branded the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’ following a scathing investigation by MPs into the collapse of BHS. The 88-year-old retail chain went into administration shortly after being sold for £1 by Green to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell, with a £571 million pension scheme deficit.
Green was accused of ‘systematically’ plundering hundreds of millions from the company and enriching his family with dividend cheques, before leading it to disaster.
Yesterday, dozens of MPs attended the Commons chamber to debate the issue and vote on a motion by Tory MP Richard Fuller and independent MP Michelle Thomson that asked for Green’s knighthood to be ‘cancelled and annulled’.
During extraordinary scenes, MPs said his only hope of clinging on to his knighthood was to use some of his estimated £3.2 billion fortune to plug the BHS pension black hole. They took turns to attack the tycoon for not honouring his promise and rescue the
‘He has shamed British capitalism’ I see Green as a billionaire spiv who has shamed British capitalism... if there is one person who does not deserve a knighthood, it is Philip Green. DAVID WINNICK (Lab) He took the rings from BHS’s fingers, beat it black and blue, starved it of food and water, put it on life support, and then wanted credit for keeping it alive. IAIN WRIGHT (Lab) Sir Philip Green treated British Home Stores as his own personal plaything... he used the company to line his own pockets, and jumped ship like the proverbial rat. CLIVE LEWIS (Lab) Green was more of a Maxwell. He had the money... the yachts... the workers and he robbed them of their pensions. DENNIS SKINNER (Lab) [Sir Philip] was a character most like the Napoleon whom I read about in history books when I was at school. We are dealing with a man who has huge sums in wealth. He could have dealt with the pensions problem and walked away smelling of roses. FRANK FIELD (Lab) What goes through the mind of a Knight of the Realm to say that those livelihoods should be consigned to a three-time bankrupt? RICHARD FULLER (Con) How can this be? How can the owner of a company act with such impunity in the matter of 11,000 jobs and 20,000 pensioners? MICHELLE THOMSON (Independent) There must be individual accountability. What I want to see more than anything - more than further damage to Sir Philip Green’s reputation, more than his humiliation, more than the removal of his knighthood - is the money. KAREN BUCK (Lab) The ability of corporate bandits to asset-strip in this way is one of the key things that needs reform. CHARLIE ELPHICKE (Con) His keeping the title adds salt to [my constituents’] wounds and the injustice of this situation. LISA CAMERON (SNP)
22,000 scheme members who face swingeing cuts to their retirement income.
The assault was spearheaded by the chairmen of the two parliamentary committees which accused Green of plundering BHS.
Frank Field, the Labour chairman of the work and pensions committee, described the collapse of BHS as a ‘sad, slowly unfolding Greek tragedy’.
Describing BHS as a prosperous business with a healthy pension scheme when Green bought it, Mr Field said: ‘Philip Green is not the king of retail. He is a very successful traditional asset stripper.’
He added: ‘ In my mind’s eye, he was a character most like the Napoleon whom I read about in history books when I was at school.’
Labour MP Dennis Skinner responded: ‘I had always thought that Sir Philip Green was more of a Maxwell. He had the money and he had the yachts. He had the workers and he robbed them of their pensions. It is almost a parallel.’
MPs also criticised Green and his wife Tina for extracting more than £400 million in dividends from BHS within the first few years of taking it over in 2000.
Iain Wright, the Labour chairman of the business innovation and skills committee, described Green as a ‘ domineering, overbearing and bullying individual’.
He said: ‘He took the rings from BHS’s fingers, beat it black and blue, starved it of food and water, put it on life support, and then wanted credit for keeping it alive.’
Perhaps the most withering putdown came from Labour MP David Winnick, who said: ‘I see Green as a billionaire spiv who should never have received a knighthood and who has shamed British capital- ism.’ Mr Fuller said MPs should question not whether Green’s actions were legal but whether they were honourable.
He focused on the decision to sell BHS for £1 to Chappell, who was introduced via a convicted fraudster and had no experience of retail. Mr Fuller said: ‘What goes through the mind of a knight of the realm that says the livelihoods of those people should be given to a threetimes bankrupt?’
Mr Mulholland’s letter of complaint will be sent to the Honours and Appointments Secretariat, which is based in the Cabinet Office. This secretariat considers the case and, if it agrees, forwards it to the Honours Forfeiture Committee.
Green was said to be in London yesterday amid reports that he is hoping to thrash out a deal with the Pensions Regulator before the weekend. But this was not confirmed by his spokesman. Instead, the tycoon lashed out against his chief tormenter, Mr Field.
In a letter sent by the businessman’s holding company Taveta, he accused Mr Field of ‘highly defamatory and false statements’ for dragging the tycoon’s Arcadia group into the BHS saga. He also accused Mr Field of causing ‘distress’ to Arcadia’s 22,000 employees by suggesting Green was ‘running Arcadia into the ground like BHS’.
The letter said there was ‘absolutely no substance’ to the allegations.
A spokesman for Green declined to comment last night.