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The Guardian
10-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Philip Green tried to overturn my parliamentary privilege – he has so far failed, and good thing too
Knight of the Realm and business tycoon Sir Philip Green spends a lot of money on expensive lawyers. First, he took out an injunction in 2018 to block the media from mentioning him over complaints from his employees at Arcadia Group, overwhelmingly women, about bullying and abusive conduct, behaviour which he categorically denied. But that failed when I named him as the person making the injunction on 25 October 2018 in the House of Lords, under a form of legal immunity known as parliamentary privilege - whereupon his lawyers tried to get me sanctioned by the parliamentary standards commissioner. That failed too when his complaint was roundly dismissed. Green's latest action was to instruct lawyers to appeal to the European court of human rights to overturn the concept of parliamentary privilege in Britain, claiming that my comments had circumvented court orders around the injunction, violated his privacy and violated his right to fair trial. That also failed when the Strasbourg court this week sensibly ruled it was not a matter for them. (This was a chamber decision, so there are still three months during which he could ask for the case to be referred to the grand chamber of the court for a final ruling.) If he were to succeed in overriding parliamentary privilege in this case, that would be seismic for human rights and freedom of speech. It dates back at least to parliament's finest historic moment in January 1642, when King Charles I and his soldiers invaded the House of Commons to arrest five MPs for treason after their speeches criticising his rule. The Speaker courageously defied him while MPs chanted 'Privilege! Privilege!' – a cry taken up in the streets by the people of London. In 1689, the right to free speech in parliament was entrenched in the English Bill of Rights. It means that MPs or peers when speaking in parliament cannot be sued and what they say can be reported in the media without the rich or powerful being able to suppress it with legal injunctions or asset seizures. Despite outrage from the legal establishment, it was used in 1955 to name for example, the notorious spy Kim Philby. It was vindicated again in 1978 when MPs used it to expose the bogus secrecy of 'Colonel B', wrongly (as judges later found) given anonymity by a court to bolster an oppressive official secrets case against journalists. When the director of public prosecutions immediately threatened the press with prosecution, newspapers, led by the Times, defied him. That said, parliamentary privilege should be used very responsibly and sparingly. In my 34 years as a parliamentarian, I had used it just twice before naming Green. In January 2000, as a Foreign Office minister, and using British intelligence, I named traffickers selling arms for 'blood diamonds' fuelling wars in Africa. They went out of business. Their chief 'merchant of death', Putin crony Victor Bout was subsequently imprisoned. In 2017 in the Lords, I named British-based global corporations alleged to be complicit in former president Jacob Zuma's corrupt activities in South Africa. These examples are living proof of parliamentary sovereignty – irrespective of the wishes of the executive, the powerful, and the wealthy, and even rulings by the legal establishment when it prevents the publication of allegations of misconduct – as the courts did initially over the Green case. I acted for moral reasons and was not second-guessing or criticising the judiciary when I further used parliamentary privilege to name Green and share details of allegations against him in the House of Lords on 23 May 2019 - Green repeated that 'to the extent that it is suggested that I have been guilty of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour, I categorically and wholly deny these allegations'. I did this partly because Green's employees had signed non-disclosure agreements, when such NDAs are meant to ensure the sanctity of confidential commercial matters, not to hide allegations of abuse. Film tycoon Harvey Weinstein used NDAs to silence his sexual harassment victims, as did organisers of the Presidents Club dinner in London in January 2018, when 130 women were required to sign agreements in a bid to stop any details of harassment, groping and propositioning going public. Former Conservative cabinet minister Maria Miller, when chair of the women and equalities committee, said that the case had 'thrown a spotlight on the way NDAs can be used repeatedly to cover up alleged wrongdoing'. Because of Charles I's attacks, the monarch is still barred from entering the House of Commons. Parliamentary privilege is an absolute free speech right entrenched in the law, a fundamental part of Britain's constitution and a part of the rule of law itself. It should not be whittled away by allowing judges, at the behest of the powerful or wealthy, to override the sovereignty of parliament. Peter Hain was the Labour MP for Neath from 1991 to 2015 and secretary of state for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Topshop post cryptic hint about return to high street almost five years after closure
British clothing brand Topshop has hinted at a major comeback almost five years after it left the British high street and went online. Formerly a mainstay of town centres and cities across the country, the clothing brand shut its stores in 2020, including its flagship branch on Oxford Street in central London. Topshop has posted three teasers on social media, telling online followers: 'WE'VE MISSED YOU TOO' in a series of clips captioned 'WE'VE BEEN LISTENING.' The brand, formerly part of Philip Green's Arcadia Group, fell on hard times during the pandemic when high street sales plummeted. Arcadia entered administration in 2020 and Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge were all acquired by ASOS in 2021, moving to purely e-commerce sales. ASOS sold a 75 per cent stake of Topshop and Topman to Danish company Bestseller in September last year, announcing its websites would relaunch within six months of the deal. The chief executive of the fashion e-commerce giant has even hinted in the past that the brand could return to the high street. Chief executive José Antonio Ramos Calamonte previously said: 'We might open stores. We will consider it for sure but we have no specific agreement to open a certain number'. At its height, Topshop had over 500 stores worldwide, including 300 in the UK. It was operational in 37 countries and opened their first US store in 2014 on New York City's Fifth Avenue. The company left the US in 2019 due to bankruptcy, liquidating 11 of their stores. Loyal fans of the brand couldn't contain their excitement on social media at the prospect the former fashion giant might return to its home on the high street. seeing rumours of topshop coming back to the high st has me SO excited… the amount of hours i used to spend in the oxford street store was insane — jasmine 🦋🧡✨ (@jasminecshaw) March 19, 2025 Stylist Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe, better known as Melissa's Wardrobe, responded to the post on Instagram: 'Are you having me on??????' Another fan commented: 'MOTHER OF GOD!!! Actually going to make my year'. Many customers reminisced over their experiences inside the chain, especially its Oxford Street flagship store. 'Seeing rumours of Topshop coming back to the high st has me SO excited… the amount of hours i used to spend in the oxford street store was insane'. Another person wrote: 'Topshop announcing they're returning to the high street is a joy only millennial girlies will understand. We've missed you x'.
