Sir Philip Green has called on the chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee to resign from the Bhs inquiry over bias comments directed at him in the media.
The billionaire has written a furious letter to Frank Field MP denouncing his conduct saying he was "not prepared to participate in a process which has not even the pretence of fairness and objectivity and which has as its primary objective the destruction of my reputation".
In the letter, seen by The Independent, he said: "I therefore require you to resign immediately from this inquiry.
"You are not the Pensions Regulator and you have no power over the Pensions Regulator.
"Anything to do with the resolution of the Bhs pension issues is in their jurisdiction and not yours and your continued participation in the inquiry will serve only to obstruct a resolution".
Sir Philip is the subject of inquiries by the Work and Pensions Select Committee, the Business, Innovation and Trade Select Committee, the Insolvency Service and the Pensions Regulator over the collapse of Bhs putting 11,000 jobs at risk.
He has been heavily criticised for selling the struggling retail chain to a group of investors led by Dominic Chappell, who has been made bankrupt three times, for just £1 last year.
Earlier this week MPs called for him to be stripped of his knighthood and SNP MP Roger Mullin dubbed him "little better than a corporate crook".
The company currently has a £571m deficit in its pension fund and Sir Philip has been urged to help plug the gap with his own fortune.
Last week, its administrator, Duff & Phelps, said it had “not been possible” to agree a sale because all the prospective buyers did not have the “working capital” needed to rescue the firm.
He was responding to comments Mr Field made to the Financial Times saying Sir Philip should give £600m to the pension fund and if he offered anything less "the committee would laugh at him".
Sir Philip is due to submit oral evidence to the select committee in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
In a previous letter to Mr Field and his counterpart on the BIS select committee, Iain Wright, he accused the MPs of conducting a "trial by media" against him.
He said the pair were "leaping to conclusions before any evidence from any witness has been heard".
"These statements...suggest that there will be no real attempt to run your inquiries in a fair way and that the outcome is pre-determined", he added.
The Independent was not able to contact Mr Field for comment but when the first letter came to light he dismissed the "trial by media" claim saying he had "mostly been responding to his comments in the media".
He said: “I certainly feel a sense of anger on behalf of all those BHS workers whose wages were deducted to go into their pension scheme and they find they’ve not gone into their pension scheme and that they stand to lose some of the pension they thought they would gain.
"I would hope that he would make good that loss. We will obviously look at all the evidence in the lead up to his appearance in June and of course the committee will make up their minds on the basis of the evidence."
