MPs are to vote on whether Sir Philip Green should lose his knighthood after the collapse of BHS, it has emerged.
The vote on whether the retail tycoon should be stripped of his honour is expected to take place next week.
An amendment to a debate which will discuss a highly critical report by the work and pensions committee will call for Green’s title to be taken away.
It is believed to be the first time that MPs have ever debated a motion on whether to annul an honour.
MPs hope that if the amendment is carried, it will be acted upon by the honours forfeiture committee, which is chaired by the head of the civil service.
The failure of BHS put 11,000 people out of work, and also left behind a pension scheme with a £570m shortfall.
Green has said he is in talks about how to close that gap, but has faced criticism for his stewardship of the company and for his failure to sort out the troubled scheme.
The parliamentary motion, first reported by BBC2’s Newsnight, “calls on the honours forfeiture committee to cancel and annul [Green’s knighthood]”.
The motion has been put forward by Conservative MP Richard Fuller and independent MP Michelle Thomson.
Fuller said on Thursday: “The idea that Green should continue to use a knighthood for services to retailing is just wrong … This is about expressing a legitimate sentiment about the way someone has behaved.
“We hope that other MPs will add their names to this amendment and that it will be acted upon.”
The vote comes less than two months after the final BHS store closed its doors.
Green, whose retail empire includes Topshop, Topman, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, was granted an honour in June 2006.
He has come under relentless scrutiny since selling BHS for £1 to a little-known entrepreneur, Dominic Chappell, in March 2015. Chappell had barely any experience of working in retail and had been declared bankrupt at least twice.
Over the following year, BHS declined and collapsed, with the department store chain going into administration a year after its sale.
The prospect of Green losing his knighthood was first raised in June by Sir Frank Field, chair of the work and pensions committee. At the time, Green said it was an attempt to destroy his reputation.
Green has a fortune estimated at more than £3bn. During his ownership of BHS, he was paid more than £400m in dividends.
Green told the Guardian on Thursday night that he did not wish to comment. “I don’t want to get involved,” he said.
