Sir Philip Green calls out politicians for "leaping to conclusions" over BHS collapse

Sir Philip Green, the former owner of BHS, has blasted the politicians investigating the collapse of the retailer - calling their accusations “inaccurate and misleading.”

Just last week BHS filed for administration, which put 11,000 jobs at risk and placed the BHS pension fund in the hands of the government’s pension protection fund (PFF).

Frank Field MP and Iain Wright MP, chairman of the House of Commons Work and Pensions and Business committees, has called for the Top Shop owner to appear before them as part of their enquiry.

Mr Field said in a recent interview that he would recommend stripping Sir Philip of his knighthood if he failed to repay £571m to the BHS pension fund.

Mr Field said: “I feel that Philip Green has a moral duty to make good the pension scheme and if he doesn’t, while I can’t speak for the committee as a whole, I personally would recommend he should lose his knighthood.”

Sir Philip has now responded via a letter, in which he accuses two Commons committee chairmen of “leaping to conclusions” in what he calls a “trial by media” against him.

Sir Philip wrote: “These statements suggest that you are leaping to conclusions before any evidence from any witness has been heard.

“They suggest that there will be no real attempt to run your inquiries in a fair way and that the outcome is pre-determined.

“The inquiries of your committees depend on the voluntary assistance of witnesses. As you are aware, your inquiries now overlap with a number of parallel regulatory and other investigations and proceedings.

“You must appreciate that witnesses will be less willing to offer your committees their assistance if the committee chairs do not act in a responsible way, in particular appearing to encourage public vilification of witnesses before the inquiries have even begun.”

The retail tycoon and his familybought BHSin 2000 for £200m but sold it to Retail Acquisitions in March 2015 for £1.

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