Sir Philip Green says collapse of BHS has been ‘horrible’ for him and his family
Thousands of jobs were lost when the high street chain collapsed and he said he is 'very, very, very sorry'
SIR Philip Green launched a desperate bid to keep his knighthood over BHS’s collapse, saying he was “very, very, very sorry”.
The Topshop tycoon also said he was “very, very, very sad” and would do “whatever it takes” to resolve the crisis of its pensions blackhole.
His words in an ITV News interview were a cynical attempt to woo MPs, who will vote tomorrow on whether he should lose his title.
In a moment of self-pity he also said of the BHS fallout : “The misery of dealing with this on a daily basis is not fun”.
He described the “horrible” time he and his family had suffered.
And in a further plea for pity he revealed he had a stent put in his heart six days before facing MPs in the summer over the BHS fallout.
The tycoon talked of the “hardship and sadness” suffered by the 11,000 workers who lost their jobs when BHS collapsed.
But his moaning will sicken his former staff, many of whom are now unemployed.
He branded serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell, the man he sold BHS to for £1 in March 2015, “clearly, categorically the wrong buyer”.
Sir Philip also revealed he had considered buying back the business after it collapsed in April this year.
Earlier in the day, Sir Philip had released a statement calling the claims of MPs, who branded him the “unacceptable face of capitalism”, as “bizarre” and “unsupportable”.
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He accused MPs of making “very serious factual and legal errors” in their report on the failure of the High Street chain.
The tycoon also defended the £400million in dividends his family took out of BHS in the decade before its collapse in April this year.
Sir Philip, who has signed up top lawyer Lord Pannick QC to report on the MPs’ report, called his sale of BHS to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1 last year as “an honest mistake”.
In a statement he said: “These dividends were lawful and were paid at a time when the BHS pension schemes were in surplus.
“BHS was not sold until 10 years later. The law does not prevent a company from paying dividends because of a risk that the company might become insolvent many years later.”
The businessman blamed the £571million blackhole in BHS’ pension fund when it collapsed on the 2008 financial crisis and pensioners living longer.
Hitting back, MP Frank Field defended the report, saying it was “agreed unanimously” by MPs from two different select committees and was based on “huge amounts of evidence”.
He added: “That one of the country’s top legal minds has been drawn in to defend Sir Philip’s actions shows how Herculean that task is. But the House will draw its own conclusions later this week.”
Sir Philip also spoke of “the stress and aggravation” the BHS collapse had caused him.
MP Anna Soubry, the former Minister for Small Business, said last night of Sir Philip Green: “He is just the embodiment of what is so wrong with the worst bits of British business.”