Retail tycoon Sir Philip Green is facing calls to give up his knighthood if he does not pay back dividends received from BHS when he owned the stores chain.



The calls came as the work and pensions select committee confirmed it will investigate how the BHS pension scheme, which has a deficit of £571m, will affect the state-backed Pension Protection Scheme (PPF). Frank Field, the chairman of the committee, said he plans to call Green to face MPs as part of the investigation.

BHS called in administrators on Monday, putting almost 11,000 jobs at risk and the PFF is set to take on the company’s pension scheme. There was further bad news for the retail sector on Tuesday as clothing retailer Austin Reed also collapsed into administration, threatening more than 1,000 jobs.

Green and Dominic Chappell, who bought BHS from the billionaire tycoon for £1 in March 2015, are facing questions about their management of the retailer.



The Guardian has calculated that Green and his family collected £586m in dividends, rental payments and interest on loans during their 15-year ownership of the retailer. Meanwhile, BHS made payments of more than £25m to Retail Acquisitions, the consortium led by Chappell, in the 13 months since it bought the company. These payments were for management fees, salaries, professional fees, and interest on loans.

John Mann, the Labour MP and member of the Treasury select committee, called on Green to repay £400m of dividends that were paid out of BHS, or give up his knighthood.

Mann said: “Sir Philip Green and his family have made millions out of BHS and its hardworking staff. He took over a company with a healthy pension pot, yet when he sold BHS a black hole had appeared in its fund.

“Sir Philip Green has taken over £400m out of the company and now must be held responsible for the actions that were taken under his stewardship.

“There is a very simple and honourable solution to this crisis; repay the dividends, live up to the name he has chosen for his new yacht, ‘Lionheart’, or lose his knighthood.”

Field added: “We need as a committee to look at the Pension Protection Fund and how the receipt of pension liabilities of BHS will impact on the increases in the levy that will now be placed on all other eligible employers to finance the scheme.



“We will then need to judge whether the law is strong enough to protect future pensioners’ contracts in occupational schemes.”