Green goes to court for damages on injunction

TOPSHOP OWNER Sir Philip Green is seeking damages over being named in Parliament as the businessman behind an injunction against the Daily Telegraph.

Court of Appeal judges temporarily barred the newspaper from identifying the tycoon or revealing “confidential information” relating to allegations of misconduct made against him by five employees.

But former Cabinet Minister Lord Hain named Sir Philip in the House of Lords two days after the court’s ruling in October.

The Labour peer said he had been contacted by someone “intimately involved” in the case and felt it was his “duty” to use parliamentary privilege to identify the retail mogul.

Despite Lord Hain’s revelation, Sir Philip and two of his companies are continuing legal action against the newspaper’s publisher Telegraph Media Group Ltd in a bid to stop further details being made public.

During a preliminary hearing at the High Court yesterday, lawyers representing Sir Philip, Arcadia and Topshop/Topman said Lord Hain’s intervention had frustrated the original injunction.

James Price QC said the case had attracted a “storm of publicity”, much of which was “ill-informed and extremely unfair”.

Mr Price said the matter of whether the Telegraph was “in some way involved” in Lord Hain being given the information should be investigated further, with a view to a potential damages claim against the newspaper.

He added: “We accept that Lord Hain has, for better or worse, complete immunity.”