An ex-cabinet minister has used parliamentary privilege to name Sir Philip Green as the businessman who obtained a privacy injunction over bullying and sexual harassment allegations.
Labour peer Lord Hain said it was his "duty" to out the high street tycoon as the mystery figure who tried to gag the media over reporting of accusations from former employees.
Following the statement in the House of Lords, some MPs including Liberal Democrat leader called for Topshop boss Sir Philip to be stripped of the knighthood he was given in 2006.
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"What better way to set fire to your cash, right here in 2018, than to pay some lawyers to gag a newspaper so that it can’t print a series of sexual harassment allegations against you," writes Tom Peck:
Sketch: In the House of Lords, Philip Green lost £500,000 in 28 seconds
There is no more certain way to lose your money anymore than to pay for censorship in the age of informationHe was able to do this because of legal immunities granted to members of both the houses of Parliament and Lords.
This privilege means MPs and peers are able to speak freely during parliamentary proceedings without being sued for defamation.
The privilege extends to the media, who have the right to report whatever is said in parliament as long as they do so accurately.
This immunity has been used on a number of occasions in recent years to get around orders made by courts.
In 2011, Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming named Ryan Giggs as the anonymous footballer who had used an injunction to prevent the media from reporting an alleged affair.
Labour equalities Dawn Butler has called for fresh scrutiny of the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), suggesting the law as it stands may not "protect the voices of survivors"
The MP said:
While much of the focus in the coming days will be on this man and his alleged actions, let us also pay tribute to survivors of sexual abuse and harassment, who are too often silenced and cannot command an army of lawyers to fight their corner.
NDAs should never be used to suppress allegations of criminal behaviour. If the current law doesn't protect the voices of survivors, the next Labour government will legislate to do so.
Topshop owner Sir Philip Green has said he "categorically and wholly" denies allegations of "unlawful sexual or racist behaviour".
In a statement after he was named in Parliament as the businessman behind an injunction against the Daily Telegraph, the retail tycoon said:
I am not commenting on anything that has happened in court or was said in Parliament today.
To the extent that it is suggested that I have been guilty of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour, I categorically and wholly deny these allegations.
Arcadia and I take accusations and grievances from employees very seriously and in the event that one is raised, it is thoroughly investigated.
Arcadia employs more than 20,000 people and in common with many large businesses sometimes receives formal complaints from employees.
In some cases these are settled with the agreement of all parties and their legal advisers. These settlements are confidential so I cannot comment further on them.
Labour's Neil Coyle is the latest MP to call for Philip Green to lose his knighthood in the wake of the allegations against him.
He said: "It is not that long ago Green was courted by coalition to help Cameron and Clegg's government. [He] deserves no say under any government and no knighthood."
Who is Philip Green?
Sir Philip Green is the king of retail whose reputation was left in tatters by the collapse of former high-street staple BHS.
Brought up in south London, he was sent to a private school in Berkshire and went straight into wholesaling shoes and selling jeans.
A bold, brash wheeler-dealer, he made his name when buying and carving up the Sears empire in the late 1990s.
In 2002, he bought Arcadia, the parent company that controls Topshop, Topman, Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge.
Other notable events include a failed £9bn bid to buy iconic high street chain Marks and Spencer in 2004.
Sir Philip was awarded the knighthood in 2006 for services to the retail industry.
But he is perhaps best-known for his role in the demise of BHS. The collapse of the retailer in April 2016 left 11,000 people out of work and a £571m black hole in its pensions fund.
The tycoon came under fire for taking £400m in dividends from BHS before selling the massively indebted firm for £1 in 2015 to businessman Dominic Chappell, who had no previous retail experience and had been declared bankrupt twice.
In 2017, Sir Philip stumped up £363m to pour into the BHS pension fund. That payout impacted the large fortune Sir Philip has amassed with his wife, Lady Tina, which currently stands at £2bn, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
Theresa May's spokesman declined to comment on Lord Hain's statement.
Asked if the PM thought it was acceptable for parliamentarians to use the protection of privilege to put information into the public domain in this way, the spokesman said: "The rules of parliamentary privilege are a matter for parliament and how they exercise these rules is obviously a matter for individual members."
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran accused the government of trading “the lives of the communities on the Irish border for their ideological Brexit” after her parliamentary questions revealed only one current Brexit Minister has visited Northern Ireland in the last 12 months.
“The Tories seem happy to trade the lives of the communities on the Irish border for their ideological Brexit. Liberal Democrats demand better.
“The Tories are clearly incapable of finding a solution to the Irish border. The people must have a final say on the deal, with an option to remain in the EU.”
Theresa May and Philip Hammond will meet with more than 100 UK business leaders for a post-Budget summit next week, Downing Street said.
Downing Street said the meeting, believed to be the first of its kind to be undertaken, was a joint initiative of the Prime Minister and Chancellor.
The prime minister's official spokesman said: "The Budget is always a significant event for business and the country at large so it is an opportunity to update some of the core messages from the Budget.
"But equally we are approaching March 29 next year and the prime minister wants to make sure that business are fully engaged in what the government are doing and to provide them with information and updates."
He was unable to say at this stage where the event would take place or who would be attending.
Veteran Labour MP Paul Flynn has announced he intends to stand down due to health reasons.
Mr Flynn, who has been in parliament for 31 years, briefly served as shadow leader of the Commons and shadow Welsh secretary in 2016.
The Newport West MP said: "I'll wait for a convenient time to go. By-elections are expensive and can be troublesome for the party.
"I don't think this government can last for more than a few months, anyway."
Asked about his time in parliament, Mr Flynn, 83, said: "I've loved every minute of it. It's been a great, wonderful, rich experience."
Brexit is a “historic error” that will “diminish the influence and prosperity of the British people,” the Spanish prime minister has said.
Pedro Sanchez told the Spanish parliament that his country would have implement emergency measures to deal with the fallout from the UK’s departure from the EU.
Story by our Europe correspondent Jon Stone here:
Brexit is a 'historic error' that will make British people poorer, Spanish prime minister says
The IndependentPedro Sanchez says Spain should learn from Britain's mistakesA leading economist has accused Theresa May of misrepresenting comments Labour's spending plans during prime minister's questions.
Simon Wren-Lewis, a professor at Oxford University, denied the prime minister's suggestion that he had said the figures in Labour's last manifesto "did not add up".
More here:
The spectre of nuclear war looms over the UK, with UK and Europe "probably the first to be hit", a Labour frontbencher has said.
Shadow defence minister Fabian Hamilton spoke days after Donald Trump threatened to pull out of a treaty eliminating some nuclear missiles, due to 'Russian non-compliance'.
The move makes nuclear war "more tangible and real" than at any time since the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed in 1987, Mr Hamilton told MPs.
Mr Hamilton said Mr Trump's "dangerous" threat would "unilaterally withdraw" the USA from a global system of trust the country had been at the forefront of "painstakingly" building, leaving European allies exposed.
Foreign Office Minister Mark Field said: "It is a great worry there does seem to be an erosion of the international rules-based order, something we have relied upon since the Second World War.
"It's something that I think all of us recognise needs to adapt and evolve to the world in which we're living in, but we need to engage with as many partners as possible to ensure that comes to pass.
"We have longstanding concerns about Russia's development of a range of new capabilities that actually stand ready to undermine our strategic stability."
But Mr Field said the USA was a "responsible nuclear power" with a policy of reducing the number of nuclear weapons and highlighted the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) signed by Russia and the US in 2011.
The Independent has launched its #FinalSay campaign to demand that voters are given a voice on the final Brexit deal.
Sign our petition here
