Sir Philip Green might not be a ‘Sir’ for much longer. MPs have just backed a motion calling for him to be stripped of his title. For now, he remains a ‘Sir’, as the vote today doesn’t have any immediate effect, and MPs are powerless to actually take his title away. Only the Honours Forfeiture Committee can do that, and the committee will now decide whether to ‘cancel and annul’ the billionaire’s beloved gong. Yet given the sentiment on display today, and the level of public anger generally, it’s difficult to see how they won’t side with MPs on this.

Unfortunately, when the committee does come to its decision, we won’t know how they made their minds up, as their discussions are held in secret. But today’s debate was very much in the public eye. And MPs made the most of the opportunity to grandstand. Frank Field had been rifling through his schoolbooks again and was back with his Napoleon analogy. He told the Commons:

‘In my mind’s eye this was a character most like the Napoleon I read about in history books when I was at school’

 

While for Labour MP, David Winnick, Sir Philip was a ‘billionaire spiv who had shamed British capitalism’. Iain Wright was perhaps the most damning in his criticism of Green though. He told the Commons:

‘Green took rings from BHS fingers, starved it of food and water, beat it black and blue and then wants credit for keeping it alive’
But he reserved his hardest blow in suggesting Green wasn’t even that good at retail at all. He accused the BHS owner of ‘failing to innovate and invest in the brand’ and said:

‘Sir Philip received his knighthood for services to retail. However, throughout the course of our inquiry, it became increasingly evident that he wasn’t particularly good at retail at all.’
Of course, for now, this debate doesn’t change anything. Sir Philip has still got his knighthood and thousands of former BHS employees are out of a job. But today’s debate will have had the effect of piling pressure on the forfeiture committee to add Philip Green’s name to the list of those who have had their knighthoods taken away from them.

What’s remarkable about today’s debate is the speed of Green’s downfall. Six years ago, David Cameron asked Green to conduct a review of Government spending. Sir Philip came in for criticism back then, but the Cabinet Office Minister at the time, Francis Maude, stood up for Green, saying the businessman had a ‘sharp eye for detail’. Yet there was no one in the Commons defending Green this afternoon. And it’s difficult to imagine anyone on the forfeiture committee doing so either.