Sir Philip Green threatened to “turn gay” and proposition a man in response to new sexual harassment claims as he angrily defied calls to lift gagging orders on his accusers.

The beleaguered billionaire, named last week as the businessman at the centre of Britain’s MeToo scandal, also warned things would get “get horribly, horribly ugly” for the Daily Telegraph if it did not halt its on-going investigation into allegations made against him.

The Telegraph tracked Sir Philip down to his luxury Arizona hideaway to ask him about the mounting accusations and his refusal to lift an injunction preventing this newspaper publishing his alleged victims’ stories.

Quizzed about claims from lawyer Nancy Dell’Olio that he once made her a real-life Indecent Proposal by offering her £1 million to spend the night with him, he told a male reporter: “I’m going to proposition you, actually. I’m going to turn gay in a minute. You can write that down. How’s that?”

The Topshop boss branded the accusations from the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant and ex-girlfriend of England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson as “nonsense”, adding, “She should be so lucky”, and calling her a “bankrupt” who was “sleeping on somebody’s couch”.

When another reporter identified herself as being from the Telegraph as Sir Philip set off for a desert hike, he initially called for “security” and threatened to involve the police, saying: “I’m sick of the Telegraph.”

He then phoned the newspaper in London and said: “Do you not think there’s a point here where your manners need to change so we don’t get into a very, very, very, very ugly place?”

He said he would report the Telegraph to the police unless it halted its investigation.

Invited to instruct his lawyers to lift the injunction which is gagging both the Telegraph and his alleged victims, he branded the case for doing so “bulls**t” and repeated his threats before adding: “Let the legal process take its course.”

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Sir Philip produced his latest outburst amid calls for him to be grilled by MPs about his “despicable” conduct.

Labour’s Peter Kyle, a member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee, said he wanted a joint inquiry between his committee, the Justice committee and the Women & Equalities committee, to examine “abuse of money, power and influence” and whether the law should be changed around the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and practices in the workplace.

Mr Kyle said the inquiry should follow-up on Sir Philip’s previous appearance in front of MPs over the collapse of BHS, where he “was basically bullying a room full of MPs on camera”.

It comes after Sir Philip was named in Parliament as the businessman who had used NDAs to cover up allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination and then taken out an injunction against the Telegraph to prevent this newspaper publishing the claims.

The injunction remains in place despite the fact that the Topshop owner has spoken publicly about the Britain’s MeToo scandal, claiming he had only ever engaged in “banter” with staff and denying any unlawful sexual or racist behaviour.

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It comes as a number of claims were reported about his conduct, including that he gave colleagues “lingering hugs”, asked them if they were “naughty girls”, and whether they needed their “bottoms slapped”.

A former employee told the Sun that he stood behind a female executive during a meeting and cut a lock of her hair without her consent.

Mr Kyle said that he had been concerned about Sir Philip’s behaviour since his appearance before the BEIS committee in 2016.

“Imagine how he speaks to members of staff if that is how he speaks to MP,” Mr Kyle said.

“I was really shocked by his behaviour. I would want to say to him, if this is how he behaves with MPs in public, fronting up to them, telling them not to look at him in a certain way, ‘Is this the way you speak to your staff’?

“It doesn’t scare me but it must be terrifying for him to speak to his staff in that way, where there are no cameras. I thought it was despicable and disrespectful.

"There is just so much with him, allegations of deeply concerning personal behaviour, and it is all wrapped up in an envelope of abuse of power, money and influence. The house of cards he built is now falling down and we are seeing the very seedy underbelly of a deeply concerning character.

“There are aspects of his life that the BEIS committee should be looking at, but that wouldn’t do justice to the full scale of his personal and professional alleged misconduct. So it might well be there needs to be a joint inquiry with a number of select committees coming together – Women and Equalities and Justice should be there – because we need to look at where the law needs to change surrounding NDAs.

“There is a very good case which I would support of a one-off cross-select committee inquiry which could look at the use of NDAs, business practice and equalities issues in the workplace and can make recommendations as to whether the law needs to change to protect against abuse of power.

“I have had a lot of banter in the workplace in my life but I have never had to pay someone off afterwards because of it. I don’t want to live in a world where people who are rich can buy off bullying, harassment or criminal misconduct.”

A petition to change the law to “stop rich, powerful individuals from silencing victims, our press and keeping the public in the dark through Non-Disclosure Agreements” had last night received more than 130,000 signatures.