// Sir Philip Green is facing fresh calls to have his knighthood removed
// New MP Steven Bonnar used his maiden House of Commons speech to criticise Green and his title
// Green’s knighthood was previously under threat in the wake of the BHS scandal in 2016 & allegations of sexual harassment in 2018
A former BHS store worker who is now an MP has used his maiden speech to call for Sir Philip Green to have his knighthood removed because of his “indifference” to employees.
Steven Bonnar, a new SNP MP for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, said he was made redundant from BHS in 2008 when he was the father of a young child.
Green, the chairman of the Arcadia Group which owned the now-defunct BHS department stores for 15 years, was handed a knighthood in 2006 for services to the retail industry.
READ MORE:
- Calls for Sir Philip Green’s knighthood to be stripped amid harassment allegations
- Baroness Karren Brady reveals why she left Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia
Giving his maiden speech in the House of Commons, Bonnar said: “I had two spells before redundancy in 2008, with a daughter of only five months old at the time.
“I wanted to take this chance actually to thank Philip Green for that harsh life lesson that so many of us endured under his employment.
“I won’t use his given title of ‘sir’. I think it’s a disgrace that he still holds it.
“To see it scrapped would go some way to repairing the damage his immeasurable greed and indifference for his employees and their families created.”
Ti comes after the House of Commons passed a motion in 2016 asking the Honours Forfeiture Committee to recommend whether Green’s knighthood be “cancelled and annulled” in the wake of the BHS collapse and subsequent pensions scandal.
Green sold BHS to Dominic Chappell for £1 in 2015, a year before it collapsed with the loss of 11,000 jobs and a pensions deficit of £571 million.
Green also faced calls to have his knighthood removed in late 2018, when came under fire with allegations of sexual harassment and bullying from former Arcadia Group staff – which he has consistently denied.
with PA Wires
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