Green apologetic over BHS pensions, but MPs still have questions

Sir Philip Green is a force of nature.

Today he swept into Portcullis House armed with an apology, a Côte d'Azur suntan and enough front to moor a luxury yacht.

MPs responded by doing a collective impression of a teacher that had lost control of a class.

Sir Philip threw himself into answering the questions - the ones he felt MPs should have been asking, rather the ones they did - and try as they might, they couldn't impose their will.

Lines of inquiry Green didn't like he spoke over, redirected or simply ignored.

He joked, mocked, raged and prevaricated - shifting between emotional gears with such speed it left MPs blinking.

The six hour session should have been over in two but we learned a lot.

Green said sorry and it even sounded sincere.

He admitted he should have dealt with BHS's pension deficit and promised to "sort it" soon - doing the right thing will cost him upwards of £275 million.

Had it done it last year BHS might not have gone bust.

Green insisted that over the 15 years he owned BHS he put more money in than he'd taken out, that he'd sold the business to the "wrong man" but that he did so because Goldman Sachs gave Dominic Chappell the all clear.

He said he hadn't sabotaged Mike Ashley's attempt to rescue BHS - indeed he had thrown in £5 million of its own money to help Ashley seal the deal, but to no avail.

"I've done nothing wrong" insisted Green when taken to task about his tax affairs (his wife owns the company he runs and is resident in Monaco).

He suggested that much of the anger directed at him was down to his success.

"Envy and jealousy, my doctor told me, are incurable diseases" he explained.

The marathon session ended to everyone's relief, but within the hour MPs stated that Green still had "many further questions" to answer.

Their inquiry seems to be widening from BHS to the rest of Green's Arcadia group and the tax it pays.

MPs want to see company accounts and are considering calling Green's wife, Tina, to give evidence.

"In the last few days we have received a huge amount of further evidence" their statement said.

This isn't over.