Former BHS employee ‘appalled’ by evidence

£7 million from the sale of its offices. Michael Hitchcock, the firm’s former finance consultant, even said he was forced to change the company’s bank mandate to “stop any chance of money flowing outside of the business”.

Richard Fuller MP suggested to him: “Isn’t the truth that you don’t take any responsibility whatsoever, you just blame others?

“Everybody else is to blame, you’re not, and you have pocketed a considerable amount of money which you’re not prepared to disclose today.”

Mr Chappell, who said he could not say how much money he had made from his involvement with BHS but would write to MPs with the answer, apologised to the 11,000 BHS and contract workers who have lost their jobs, but continued to lay the blame elsewhere, saying it was “a travesty and it was avoidable”.

He said BHS was dragged down partly by a row between Sir Philip and the pensions regulator over who should be responsible for a £571 million shortfall in the firm’s pension scheme. Sir Philip had allegedly made it clear when he sold BHS in May 2015 that the responsibility for the pension deficit lay with himself, his Arcadia group and BHS.

Lin MacMillan, a former BHS employee who is leading a campaign in support of its staff and pensioners, said the evidence to the committee had been “absolutely appalling”.

She said: “The fact is that all these people, who seem to spend their time trading insults, threatening to kill each other and using foul language, are not fit and proper people to run a big company like BHS.

“It is becoming obvious that Philip Green knew exactly what he was doing when he sold the company to Dominic Chappell for a pound.

“He wanted rid of it because it was becoming a millstone around his neck with the £571m hole in the pension fund.”

Ms MacMillan is calling on Sir Philip to repay the money he took out of BHS and to bail out the pension fund.

A spokesman for Sir Philip said: “Sir Philip was unaware of any bid by Mike Ashley/Sports Direct.

“The Green family invested substantially in BHS and at the point of sale provided Retail Acquisitions with every opportunity to succeed in their turnaround plan.”

‘Everybody else is to blame, you’re not, and you have pocketed a considerable amount of money’