Scandal-hit Topshop owner faces police inquiry

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Feb 11, 2019

Philip Green, the millionaire owner of Arcadia brands including Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge, could face a police investigation and lose his knighthood over allegations of sexual assault and racial abuse.

MP Peter Kyle has sent a letter to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner asking for officers to investigate claims made by former staff members against the British businessman, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Philip Green has been accused of using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to silence alleged victims of sexual harassment and racial abuse after it emerged he had paid more than £1m to employees to keep them quiet.

In his letter to the Met Commissioner, Kyle details allegations that one woman was groped and had her bottom smacked, while a black male employee was told he was “throwing spears in the jungle”.

“it is clear that some of his behaviour warrants criminal investigation,” Kyle wrote adding that in his view, the allegations would amount to sexual assault and racial abuse if proven.

“Sir Philip Green is accused of monstrous acts which must have inflicted unimaginable fear into his subordinates, particularly women and people belonging to minority groups, who seem to have attracted the most vicious of his alleged attacks,” he continued.

“'When it comes to upholding the law there should be no place to hide, including yachts in the Mediterranean and erroneous use of non-disclosure agreements in British courts.”

Green has denied any unlawful sexual or racist behaviour.

Meanwhile, Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery has called for the government to ask the forfeiture committee to examine whether Green should lose his knighthood. “If the allegations are true, then Philip Green should be stripped of his knighthood,” he said.

“The public rightly expect high standards from public figures and they’re not getting it. The honours system is clearly flawed and the prime minister should take steps to remove honours from people who bring their office into disrepute.”

Arcadia’s corporate culture has also been put at the centre of the scandal, with women’s rights campaigners asking for a inquiry into its internal complaints system.