Ex-BHS tycoon Sir Philip Green could keep knighthood ‘for years’ despite Commons vote to strip him of it
Secretive government panel refuses to make decision on removing the shamed billionaire's honours before full investigation
SHAMED billionaire Sir Philip Green could keep his knighthood “for years” thanks to back-room Whitehall deals.
A secretive government panel said they would not make decision on stripping him of the honour until after he has been fully investigated.
The former BHS boss is facing an investigation by the Insolvency Service and the pensions regulator.
The honours forfeiture committee has revealed its stance in a letter to Frank Field, who co-chaired the inquiry into BHS’s collapse, the Times reports.
In a letter dated January 17, Sir Jonathan Stephens, chairman of the committee, said: “As you know, the government is taking the circumstances surrounding the collapse of BHS very seriously, including investigations by the Insolvency Service and the Independent Pensions Regulator.
“We believe it will be important to ensure any consideration of Sir Philip’s case by the forfeiture committee should have the benefit of the findings of the independent inquiries into BHS by the relevant regulators.”
Sir Jonathan also noted that last year’s unanimous Commons vote to strip Sir Philip of his honour “will be carefully considered”.
In the Commons debate last October Sir Philip was branded a “billionaire spiv” by one MP for selling BHS for £1 when it had a pension scheme with a “buy out” deficit of £571million.
The businessman, who was knighted for services to the retail industry, was also compared to Napoleon and Robert Maxwell as MPs queued up to condemn his behaviour.
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The collapse of BHS put 11,000 people out of work and left more than 13,000 facing cuts to their pensions.
If he is stripped of his knighthood, the billionaire will join Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief, and Anthony Blunt, who spied for Russia, who had their honours removed.
Sir Philip declined to comment.