LONDON — After firing off a letter late Thursday accusing parliamentarians of fueling a “trial by media” with regard to the collapse of BHS and its pension fund deficit, Sir Philip Green is now asking for one of the parliamentarians to resign.
Frank Field, chair of the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, told the Financial Times that Green should be “stripped of his knighthood” unless the BHS pension deficit question is settled.
“If someone rats on the commitment he made to his workforce, we would want to reconsider whether honors are still appropriate,” Field told the FT on Thursday.
Green, who was granted a knighthood in 2006 for services to the retail industry, told the financial paper he was “horrified” that Field was prepared to make those comments in public.
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“I had, in principle, agreed to attend a hearing on 15 June. Clearly [Field] has already made his decision as to what he feels the punishment should be without even hearing any evidence from anybody about BHS or the circumstances of the last 15 years,” said Green.
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“I think Mr. Field needs to stand down from the inquiry immediately, as he is clearly prejudiced.” Green will appear before a joint committee of parliamentarians on June 15 at 9:30 am.
There are now five separate investigations into what went wrong with BHS, which was put into administration, the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11, last month. Green sold the retailer last year for a nominal one pound, $1.50, to a business consortium. He remains one of BHS’s biggest creditors.
Late Thursday, Green finally broke his silence regarding BHS in a letter, seen by WWD, that was addressed to Field and his fellow parliamentarian Iain Wright.
The letter said a “trial by media” has been taking place with “much inaccurate and misleading information about my actions in relation to BHS.”
Green said he also wanted to express his concerns about various statements parliamentarians have made in the press “calling me to lose my knighthood or suggesting that I have asset stripped BHS without regard to pensions and employees. These statements suggest that you are leaping to conclusions before any evidence from any witness has been heard.”
Green added that witnesses will be less willing to give evidence in the investigations if parliamentarians continue to encourage “the public vilification of witnesses before the inquiries have even begun.”
A spokesman for Green said Friday he did not plan to issue any further comment on the matter.