Is It Time To Strip Sir Philip Green?

Business

7 Dec

Over 236,000 people have signed the petition to strip Sir Philip Green of his knighthood following the collapse of Arcadia. With 13,000 jobs at risk and estimated pension deficit of £350 million, supporting those out of work will be another huge cost in Chancellor Rishi Sunak's mounting spend this year.

The struggle of high street retailers has, without doubt, been exacerbated by the pandemic. But to blame the collapse of Arcadia on Covid-19 alone would be shortsighted. Brands that had invested in online retail have better weathered the storm, including Monki, Weekday and Zara. And even Primark's 'store only' strategy appears to be working in their favour.

The collapse of Arcadia after eighteen years of Green's reign is reminiscent of what happened at BHS. The high street was similarly shaken back in 2016 when the company fell into administration. This was just a year after Sir Philip Green sold BHS for £1 to Dominic Chappell, after owning the company for fifteen years. The collapse led to the loss of 11,000 jobs and a pension deficit of £571m. Green eventually settled with the Pensions Regulators and paid £363m to help plug the gap.

On 5 November 2020, Chappell was jailed for six years for evading £583,739.20 in taxes due. Chappell was found guilty of cheating the revenue via fraudulent and dishonest non-payment of VAT, corporation tax and income tax over a sustained period of time.

Green's actions, though unethical, have not been found to be unlawful (yet). But his reputation has made him the face of capitalist criticism, and deservedly so. I believe there are four key reasons why he's unpalatable to many:

Alleged tax evasion and tax avoidance (Green lives in tax haven Monaco and Arcadia parent company, Taveta Investments, is registered in tax haven Jersey).
Unashamedly high dividend payouts when the business required investment and innovation.
Sir Philip's character and allegations of racism and sexual harassment. Debenhams is in a similar situation to Arcadia, but the faces of the investors are unknown. They haven't put themselves in the spotlight schmoozing celebrities and sitting front row at Fashion Week with high profile models
The power of one man's actions on so many women who worked for or purchased from the Arcadia brands is steeped in unsavoury patriarchal control.

Whether, like Chappell, Green is found guilty of breaking the law time will tell. But the court of public opinion certainly has spoken, with this portrait of Sir Philip Green by Jake Walters going viral.