Will Sir Philip Green scandal affect Topshop sales?
Some shoppers say they would think twice before spending in one of the businessman's stores, which include Topshop and Wallis.
Sunday 28 October 2018 08:30, UK
Branding experts have told Sky News they don't expect footfall at Sir Philip Green's stores to be affected by the scandal in the short term.
But shoppers seem unusually aware of his links to the brands they buy.
Most people can't realistically name the owners of the shops they are in.
Mr Green is the chairman of Arcadia Group, a retail company that includes Topshop, Topman, Wallis and Miss Selfridge.
Yet a fair few of the people outside the Topshop store on Oxford Street in central London did know his name and some said they would now think twice about where to spend their money.
But another shopper told us: "If it's proven that the allegations happened I would stop shopping here. But it needs to be investigated properly. It should be innocent until proven guilty."
Consumer journalist and feature writer Harry Wallop said: "A lot of consumers say they would like to boycott Topshop and some of the other brands he owns through Arcadia.
"But what people say and how they behave are two very different things and you often have following some scandal involving a consumer company.
"People promising they'll boycott it and then nothing much happens."
Mr Wallop continued: "The most famous example was following the Rana Plaza disaster when a factory in Bangladesh collapsed and caused the death of more than a thousand people.
"It supplied lots of the high street chains in the UK - notably Primark - and lots of people at the time said they would never darken the doors of those shops.
"But what happened? The following three months sales and profits jumped at Primark.
"So I would be surprised if this has a huge impact on the takings at Topshop and other Arcadia brands."
Of course everything depends on how things play out in the battle with Lord Hain, who sensationally used parliamentary privilege to name Mr Green as the anonymous figure at the centre of newspaper sexual harassment allegations.
The two men are now at loggerheads and neither is showing signs of backing down. The Lord's Authority will now investigate Mr Green's complaint.
Luke Gittos, lawyer and legal editor at Spiked Online, said: "Quite what the investigation will yield is hard to tell. It's very rare for these investigations to occur.
"It's very rare for parliamentary privilege to be breached in this way so we are in slightly unchartered territory.
"Parliamentary privilege is an extremely important principle. It protects members of parliament in that having robust and serious discussion without fear of recourse, so I think it would be regrettable if that principle was diluted.
"I think what should happen now is that Lords and members of parliament should realise it carries a degree of responsibility and that perhaps in this case it wasn't the correct approach to breach what was an interim order of the court of appeal."
Mr Gittos added: "It's a very complex case and it's not as straightforward as to say MPs and lords can do and act as they please in the name of parliamentary privilege.
"The protections that are afforded to them are very important and have been long fought for and are at the root of our democracy, but they do need to be exercised with an understanding that they interact with other organs of state, including the courts."