Police have been asked to investigate Sir Philip Green after allegations emerged of him groping a female executive and making a racial slur at an employee.
MP Peter Kyle on Sunday wrote to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick asking her force to investigate claims against the Topshop tycoon, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The newspaper said Sir Philip allegedly groped a female executive and bought her silence with more than £1m and referred to a black employee “throwing spears in the jungle” while drawing attention to his dreadlocks.
It was revealed by the newspaper that five employees had signed Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to keep their complaints confidential after the Arcadia owner’s High Court action ended.
Sir Philip denied his behaviour was criminal or amounted to gross misconduct.
Mr Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove who sits on the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, wrote to Scotland Yard saying “it is clear that some of his behaviour warrants criminal investigation”.
“Sir Philip Green is accused of monstrous acts which must have inflicted unimaginable fear into his subordinates, particularly women and people belonging to minority groups, who seem to have attracted the most vicious of his alleged attacks,” the letter continued.
Meanwhile, Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss called for a change in NDA laws to prevent their abuse.
“I do think it is disgraceful that he (Sir Philip) has been able to use non-disclosure agreements to effectively silence victims of sexual and racial abuse,” she told Sky’s Ridge On Sunday.
“I think we need to look seriously at those non-disclosure agreements and get changes to them because I think it’s completely wrong that people like Philip Green have been able to flout the law.”
The Telegraph fought a long legal battle to report the allegations, after being banned by a court injunction sought after Sir Philip and an executive at his Arcadia firm were contacted for comment in July.
Sir Philip’s lawyers told the newspaper: “It is further denied that any of Sir Philip’s conduct towards employees amounted to any type of crime, or anything that would amount to gross misconduct, or a serious risk to health and safety.”
