LONDON (Reuters) -British retail tycoon Philip Green on Tuesday lost a legal case against the United Kingdom over the use of parliamentary privilege, which was invoked to publicly name him in 2018 as facing allegations of sexual harassment.
Green, once one of Britain’s most prominent businessmen, was named in parliament as having sued to stop publication of the allegations, which Green denied, after obtaining an interim injunction against the Telegraph newspaper.
Labour politician Peter Hain used parliamentary privilege, which allows members to speak freely and their comments to be reported without fear of being sued, to name the entrepreneur.
Green brought a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that the lack of controls on the use of parliamentary privilege to reveal information subject to an injunction breached the right to privacy.
But the court on Tuesday found unanimously that it was “for national parliaments to assess the need to restrict conduct by their members”.
The Telegraph in 2018 sought to publish allegations of sexual and racial harassment of employees, which Green said at the time he “categorically and wholly” denied.
Green had also argued before the ECtHR that his right to a fair trial had been infringed, as he was unable to bring a claim against Hain, and the fact that Green had been named rendered his lawsuit against the Telegraph futile. This was rejected, by a 5-2 majority.
The parties have three months to decide whether to appeal to the court’s Grand Chamber for a final ruling, a court spokesperson said.
Green became one of Britain’s best-known tycoons when he bought the department store group BHS in 2000 and Arcadia, owner of the high-street chain Topshop, in 2002.
The entrepreneur was known as “king of the high street” and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, but his reputation was damaged by the collapse of BHS after he sold the chain for one pound in 2015 to a businessman who had previously been declared bankrupt.
Green could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday’s ruling.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar and Kevin Liffey)
