• Sir Philip’s Green’s Taveta Investments launches fresh attack on Frank Field
  • Letter to the MP says his “conduct has fallen well below the standard” the public expects
  • Comes as MPs prepare to vote on stripping Green’s knighthood in Parliament today

Sir Philip Green has launched a fresh attack on Frank Field as MPs prepare to debate stripping the former BHS owner of his knighthood.

The Topshop tycoon’s Taveta Investments group has sent a letter to the chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, accusing him of upsetting the 22,000 workers employed by Arcadia.

The letter specifically refers to a TV interview Field carried out, in which he alleged Green was “running Arcadia into the ground like BHS.”

The letter also objects to further “defamatory comments” from Field, including the allegation that Green had been “nicking money off other people.”

’Responsible approach’

Taveta states in the letter: “As an MP and as Chairman of a Commons Select Committee, we expect you to take a much more responsible approach to statements that you make and we consider that your conduct has fallen well below the standard that we and the public are entitled to expect.

“You seem to pay no attention at all to the inaccuracy of what you are saying or the extent to which you are causing distress to Arcadia’s employees and other related parties.”

Green says that Field’s “behaviour is totally unwarranted” and added there was “no justification” for the statements he made during the TV interview.

The letter goes on to suggest that Field is “goading Sir Philip and Arcadia to sue” him, but Taveta Investments states: “We do not wish to waste our time at this stage getting into litigation with you.”

Call to strip knighthood

The war of words between the pair has re-ignited just hours before MPs debate Green’s knighthood in Parliament.

A number of MPs have called for Green to be stripped of the honour for the role he played in the demise of BHS.

The department store chain plunged into administration in April, just over a year after Green sold the business to Retail Acquisitions – fronted by three-times bankrupt Dominic Chappell – for a nominal £1.

BHS crumbled under a pension deficit of £571m, which Green vowed to “sort” after being hauled before a parliamentary committee earlier this year.

A solution is yet to be found, but Green is set to meet the pensions regulator by the end of the week in a bid to thrash out a deal, according to the BBC.

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