:12:09. > :12:24.Is that for you all for me? Hopefully for both of us. Let's go
:12:25. > :12:27.together and say prayers. I came here this morning, despite it being
:12:28. > :12:33.that we could agree to disagree about how we got here, but we are
:12:34. > :12:37.here. I am not running away but we are going round and round. I want to
:12:38. > :12:46.try, and you will get my best shot and some way or other to find a
:12:47. > :12:51.solution to the pensions. We have others who want to go outside,
:12:52. > :12:54.otherwise I have to pray. I want to go outside and have everyone leaving
:12:55. > :12:58.here saying I am not in any way shape or form running away. If there
:12:59. > :13:07.rioters we can look at I will at them. I want us to have the break so
:13:08. > :13:11.that everybody knows that I am committed. In all the things I've
:13:12. > :13:15.told you this is one thing in my life that I have got. There is
:13:16. > :13:20.nothing that I am going to tell you that you cannot go and check up. If
:13:21. > :13:24.I told you I spoke to a guy you can go and check all of the things I am
:13:25. > :13:28.telling you, this is important for me because I am not going to tell
:13:29. > :13:33.you lies because there is no purpose to it. I am just going to have a
:13:34. > :13:38.break and reiterated. I am committed to finding a solution and I am not
:13:39. > :13:44.running away from it. The regulator has not been easy, to put it mildly,
:13:45. > :13:47.is not run towards us to help find a solution, for whatever reason.
:13:48. > :13:54.Letters us maybe have a break on that basis. Let us finish this and
:13:55. > :13:57.then we can have a break. There are some that might be controversial and
:13:58. > :14:07.I didn't think that was. You have made your point. There was support
:14:08. > :14:13.in place. Would you have concurred with your chairman that if a
:14:14. > :14:17.solution had not been found for BHS in January 2015 that either it had
:14:18. > :14:22.to be sold or it had to go into administration? Did you agree? What
:14:23. > :14:28.I would rather do is so that we don't go off into a whole new area,
:14:29. > :14:35.I am happy to start by questioning isolation and happy to answer. There
:14:36. > :14:40.is a pensions side to this. There is an answer to this. There are two
:14:41. > :14:56.different answers, if I may. Give UI -- give me either. I will give you
:14:57. > :14:59.both! Police. Please. If I want to be a corporate business and we would
:15:00. > :15:02.have taken the business into ourselves which is based on all that
:15:03. > :15:08.it is going on now, it couldn't have been any worse than where we are now
:15:09. > :15:11.so I am better off taking this through a levy and other business
:15:12. > :15:16.people have taken these things through pre-packs in all sorts of
:15:17. > :15:24.processes, and I went many miles to try not to let that happen. If I
:15:25. > :15:28.look back now, in terms of the last four weeks, I could be a murderer
:15:29. > :15:33.the way they are writing about me. I haven't got any guns but the stuff
:15:34. > :15:42.that is being written every day is pretty outrageous. I now sort of say
:15:43. > :15:46.in hindsight that in 2014I maybe should have said we would put it
:15:47. > :15:53.into a process and resurrect it and we could get to this in a few
:15:54. > :16:00.minutes time. My response to you is he is giving you a common-sense
:16:01. > :16:06.approach that in his opinion if we could not find another solution... I
:16:07. > :16:11.think that was a yes, that are either had to go into administration
:16:12. > :16:19.or... It didn't have too, we could have kept finding it. It was an
:16:20. > :16:23.option at the time. With respect, putting businesses into bankruptcy
:16:24. > :16:29.or into admin, based on, we are in the industry, so there is a lot of
:16:30. > :16:39.commonality across the businesses, it was a very last resort. So you
:16:40. > :16:42.had three options, administration, I totally understand it is the last
:16:43. > :16:46.thing you want to do, or selling it, or continuing to fund it. You were
:16:47. > :16:52.prepared to go down the selling route. What first attracted you to
:16:53. > :17:01.the twice bankrupt, penniless retailer? If we are to start this,
:17:02. > :17:04.we cannot have a break. We either carry on... That I want to have a
:17:05. > :17:10.quick break. If you want to carry on we cannot take that in isolation.
:17:11. > :17:15.No, there are other questions. Mr Chairman, this is in your hands. We
:17:16. > :17:22.will actually break and we will begin with Jeremy Wagner comeback.
:17:23. > :17:26.Can I just put 1.2 you, which in our evidence shock to me? One of the
:17:27. > :17:30.images that has always come across is about how you delegate and you do
:17:31. > :17:37.a lot of your business on your phone and so on, but the key meeting where
:17:38. > :17:43.the chairman you had appointed, you paid rather well, Lord Gravel, just
:17:44. > :17:49.did not turn up for the sale of BHS. He didn't even have the papers. Did
:17:50. > :17:57.that disappoint you, that the person who was in a sense paid by you well,
:17:58. > :18:03.had failed in his stewardship? I am not going to answer on behalf of
:18:04. > :18:10.Lord Gravel. I want you answer for yourself. I can't answer, I don't
:18:11. > :18:15.know the circumstances of that day. I don't know, he may have been in
:18:16. > :18:19.court or tied up. I don't know will stop he would not turn up because he
:18:20. > :18:25.didn't want to turn up. He may have had another commitment, it may have
:18:26. > :18:30.been short notice, I don't know. But you paid him incredibly well, as you
:18:31. > :18:34.paid a lot of people, he didn't even bother to spend -- sent for the
:18:35. > :18:42.papers to fill in and he was acting on your behalf. I can't answer for
:18:43. > :18:46.him. I am telling you that he has been with us for 12 years and he
:18:47. > :18:54.obtains most of the board meetings and gets all the papers and I don't
:18:55. > :18:57.know why he didn't. But I am saying that there is certainly no specific
:18:58. > :19:05.reason that he would not have been in the loop in relation to that.
:19:06. > :19:08.Very good. Sir Philip, I will accompany you back if I may add a
:19:09. > :19:20.quarter of a now we will resume. Thank you very much. That is where
:19:21. > :19:24.we leave our live coverage from the select committee rooms. You can
:19:25. > :19:41.continue watching the session live online.
:19:42. > :19:45.Not for the first time, the government is looking at this
:19:46. > :19:49.through the wrong end of the telescope. Surely rather than try
:19:50. > :19:52.and put bent local authorities from taking ethical and admire a mental
:19:53. > :19:57.issues into account when making decisions it should, as the Scottish
:19:58. > :20:00.Government does, encourage them to do so. Does the Minister really
:20:01. > :20:04.believe that council tax payers money should be used to prop up
:20:05. > :20:12.oppressive regimes and support unlawful activity throughout the
:20:13. > :20:16.world? I find it surprising that the SNP and gauges and supports
:20:17. > :20:22.discrimination of this kind when what we should do is we should trade
:20:23. > :20:26.with the world, except where there is a boycott or a decision at a
:20:27. > :20:27.national level. The