Sir Philip Green owes it to the 11,000 BHS workers who face losing their jobs to explain his role in the collapse of the high street retailer, the shop workers’ union said on Wednesday ahead of the retail tycoon’s appearance at Westminster.
Dave Gill, national officer of Usdaw, said that Green must be held to account for the failure of the business that he sold for just £1 to a little-known group of investors led by the serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell in 2015.
Green will be questioned by MPs on the works and pensions committee and the business, innovation and skills committee at 9.15am on Wednesday as part of their investigation into the collapse of BHS.
“We should remember there are 11,000 employees that could in the next six weeks be out of jobs,” Gill told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“They want to know what exactly has Philip Green been doing over the last number of years? What suddenly made him pull the plug on it? Its a very sad time and he should be held accountable for it.”
Gill said workers did not understand why Green suddenly turned his back on the retailer without first finding a credible buyer.
“The main thing that people find concerning is that he could just sell his company for £1 to someone who has already been bankrupt a number of times. It’s not as though he even tried to sell it on to someone credible who could actually try and turn the business round.”
“Reading between the lines it seems that his view was just to try and get rid of it as soon as possible.”
The union is still hoping that a buyer can be found for at least part of the BHS business.
“I’m in close contact with the administrators and I know there are still some credible people looking at buying maybe not all the business but certain aspects of it and hopefully keeping the vast majority in jobs and keeping the British Home Stores logo on the high street.”
The session at the House of Commons is likely to be tense after Green threatened that he would not give evidence unless the MP Frank Field stepped down from his role as co-chair of the investigation.
Green suggested he would not get a fair hearing from Field, who previously called on the billionaire to be stripped of his knighthood. However, Green confirmed on Tuesday that he would appear.
MPs are likely to focus on the £571m pensions black hole at BHS, as well as why he thought it reasonable to sell the business to Chappell.
