Baroness Brady resigns from Sir Philip Green's retail empire

Apprentice star Baroness Karren Brady has resigned as chair of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire amid allegations of sexual harassment against the entrepreneur - just weeks after saying that she had a “sense of duty” towards women who worked there.

Baroness Karren Brady has stepped down from her position of chair.

Baroness Brady stepped down from her post at Taveta Investments, which controls chains like Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, and Burton through its ownership of Arcadia. She has held a position on the board since 2010 and became chair in 2017.

The firm said non-executive Sharon Brown, a former interim chairwoman of McColl’s, had also resigned as non-executive director of Taveta.

Baroness Brady was accused of hypocrisy after she refused to step down earlier this month, despite the emergence of harassment claims against Sir Philip. In a statement, she said that she had a “sense of duty” towards its employees to remain on the board - including her own daughter, Sophia Peschisolido, who is a social media content assistant at Topshop. She said at the time that it would be “the easy thing to do” to walk away.

Sir Philip is under investigation by US police over a groping allegation and is facing renewed calls for his knighthood to be taken away. Last year, he obtained an injunction against a newspaper which planned to reveal alleged sexual harassment and racial abuse of staff by a “leading businessman”. However, Labour peer Peter Hain exercised parliamentary privilege to name Green as the subject of the allegations a day later. There have also been allegations that Green paid staff to sign non disclosure agreements.

The company said: “Taveta would like to announce that Karren Brady and Sharon Brown (in their respective capacities as non-executive chairman and non-executive director) have resigned from its board. Taveta thanks them for their contribution and wishes them well for the future.”

As well as working as a board member - one of Lord Alan Sugar’s two assistants - on TV series The Apprentice, Brady also runs a company which supports women in business and is vice-chairwoman of West Ham.

Baroness Brady was made a life peer by the Prime Minister, entering the House of Lords as a Conservative in 2014. She received a CBE from the Queen for her services to business, entrepreneurship and women in business.