Sir Philip Green accuses Telegraph of colluding with Lord Hain in his naming in harassment story and bids to uncovers its sources
Retail mogul Sir Philip Green is set for a court battle with the Daily Telegraph in an attempt to uncover the newspaper’s sources for its front page story alleging harassment by an unnamed businessman.
Arcadia’s lawyers were granted an interim injunction preventing the naming of Green and Arcadia as the subjects of the piece. However, in October Labour peer Peter Hain used parliamentary privilege to reveal in the House of Lords that Green was the tycoon at the centre of the allegations.
A judgment handed down yesterday by Justice Warby revealed Green and his lawyers filed an application on 20 December seeking to uncover the sources of the Telegraph’s story.
It also revealed that Green is seeking damages for the publicity that followed his naming, with his lawyers accusing the Telegraph of colluding with Hain to reveal his identity.
Arcadia’s lawyers said the Telegraph “directly or indirectly participated, procured, colluded in and/or facilitated the provision of the information regarding Sir Philip’s identity to Lord Hain for the purpose of it being disclosed under the cover of parliamentary privilege.”
Hain told City PM “This is a malevolent lie to divert attention from the allegations of sexual harassment and bullying at issue.”
The court documents show Green is seeking to discover the identities of the sources of information connected to two Arcadia employees who entered into non-disclosure agreements with the company following the settlement of claims for alleged misconduct.
Green is also seeking more broadly to uncover all the Telegraph’s sources of information for its story.
After Hain named Green it emerged Hain was a paid adviser to the Telegraph’s law firm, Gordon Dadds, but Hain denied Gordon Dadds was the source of his information.
Hain said: “I publicly stated at the time that this is absolutely false as did Gordon Dadds. I was not even aware that Gordon Dadds were acting for the Telegraph. Nor were they aware I was to speak under Parliamentary privilege.”
Lawyer’s for the Telegraph also denied responsibility for colluding with Hain in Green’s naming and said that trying to uncover a parliamentarian's source for something said in proceedings in the chamber was a breach of the Bill of Rights of 1689.
Justice Warby said he has written to the Lord Speaker Lord Fowler to give the parliamentary authorities an opportunity “to make representations on questions of parliamentary privilege" thrown up by the case.
Hain is reportedly under investigation by the House of Lords standards commissioner for an “alleged breach of the code in relation to declaration of interests”.
The court showdown is scheduled for 4 February.