MPs Vote To Strip Sir Philip Green Of His Knighthood After BHS Collapse

[RobbieGong]

As reported on AOL via Huffington Post

MPs have unanimously backed a call for Sir Philip Green to be stripped of his knighthood during a three-hour debate in which he was labelled a “billionaire spiv”.

The session in the House of Commons asked whether the businessman should face repercussions for the collapse of BHS which led to 11,000 job losses and benefit cuts for thousands of its pensioners.

The result of the vote does not mean Green will automatically lose his title but places pressure on the Honours Forfeiture Committee to revoke it.

bour MP David Winnock called Green a “billionaire spiv who should never have received a knighthood, a billionaire spiv who has shamed British capitalism”.

Chair of the work and pensions committee, Frank Field, who ran a joint inquiry into the collapse of the high street chain said the affair was a “Greek tragedy”.

He added: “There was nothing the committee could find that shows Sir Philip Green is the king of the high street. He [Green] was a very very successful asset stripper.”

He was awarded his title in 2006 for services to retail.

Green owned BHS for 15 years before selling it for £1 to Dominic Chappell. It subsequently went into administration in April of this year with a £571 million pension scheme deficit.

The last store closed its doors in August.

Green was derided for evidence of his extravagant spending, such as his £100million yacht, while the livelihoods of around 8,500 people who stood to lose their jobs hung in the balance.

There was little sympathy for Green on social media.

Not the first time they've got this knighthood malarkey very wrong. Hindsight is a wonderful thing i guess :rolleyes:

[struth]

Russkies would put him up against a wall. Who's to say its not a good idea. £100 mil yacht for self yet his business has a 700 mil deficit in its pension fund... very typical.

[archiesdad]

They should rip off his manhood let alone his knighthood, another Maxwell.

[Cotlake]

Yes, but Maxwell had the decency to fall off the back of his boat.

[Macca]

Would be better if they could strip him of the money. Not the first time this has happened and it happens on a much smaller and non-newsworthy level all the time. For decades, this has gone on but never any action except taking away an honour, He still gets to go back to his yacht, mansion and millions in the bank. Some moral hazard that is.

[walpurgis]

Maybe Green will do a Shirley (Cohen) Porter and go and live in Israel and abandon the 'debt'. Only about a third of the 42 million she owed was ever settled.

[Macca]

As part of my job I see insolvency reports all the time. It is amazing how much debt even small businesses can ramp up before they finally go under. Most keep trading on credit right up to the end as well, which is technically illegal but no-one ever seems to be prosecuted for it. After the bones have been picked clean by the bank, HMRC and the liquidator fees there is never anything left for the unsecured creditors.

I work for a big corp that can take the hit, but a even a couple of grand of debt is a big write-off for a lot of companies, that sends them into liquidation too and then you get a vicious spiral. 'Limited Liabilty' actually means no liability at all, and that does need changing. If banks were to lose their secured creditor status they might think twice about lending these people money in the first place. All they are doing in a lot of cases is enabling idiots to f**k up royally and take a lot of other people with them in the process.