Tuesday 18 October 2016 11:22 am

Sir Philip Green lashes out at MPs over “bizarre” report that branded him the “unacceptable face of capitalism”

Sir Philip Green has published a report from a top lawyer that criticises MPs for branding him the "unacceptable face of capitalism".

The 82-page report from Lord Pannick QC, a human rights lawyer, says the joint select committee inquiry into BHS made conclusions that were "bizarre" and "unsupportable".

Pannick also criticised Frank Field MP, chair of the work and pensions select committee, for having "made up his mind before hearing all (or any) of the evidence" regarding Green and the sale of BHS to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell.

The MPs concluded in a report in July that BHS' £571m pension deficit was caused by the Green family's dividends.

But Pannick's report said that the select committees "ignored clear evidence that the main causes of the pension deficit were the increasing longevity of pensioners and the global financial crisis of 2008."

Pannick also pointed out that the Greens took out dividends between 2002 and 2005, when the BHS pension scheme was in surplus.

Field said: "My own views were shaped by the evidence as well as the circumstances of those former BHS workers whose jobs have been lost and pensions put at risk.

"That one of the country's top legal minds has been drawn in to defend Sir Philip's actions shows how Herculean that task is."

The intervention from Green comes days before MPs debate BHS' collapse in the House of Commons. They will vote on whether or not Green should have his knighthood taken from him.