Sir Philip Green snaps at MP to stop staring at him during BHS hearing

Philip Green answers MPs' questions about the collapse of BHS (Sky News)

Sir Philip Green snapped at an MP to stop staring and spilled water on the table during an extraordinarily tense hearing with MPs over the collapse of BHS.

The former owner of the British high street chain struggled to control his anger during hours of questioning by MPs on the Business Innovation and Skills Committee.

MPs were charged with working out how BHS collapsed one year after Sir Philip sold it to former racing driver and bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1 in March 2015.

Sir Philip told Richard Fuller MP to "stop staring" at him during a discussion about how much money was still owed to his wife, Tina.

"Do you mind not looking at me like that, its really disturbing," he snapped.

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Mr Fuller replied, while the whole room stared harder at Sir Philip.

The retail tycoon later struggled to pour himself a glass of water during a hearing that he sought to control by interrupting with his own agenda, including a prepared apology at the start, asking his own questions, and set-piece explanations used to dodge specific questions.

"We're asking the questions," Iain Wright MP reminded Sir Philip. Mr Wright said that Sir Philip's "thin-skinned" approach might raise corporate governance issues, if his directors felt unable to raise issues about the sale of BHS.

Sir Philip did vow to sort out the pensions "mess" that he left at BHS, which could see 20,000 current and former BHS employees lose part of their pensions, but he declined to give details of what this might entail.

A £571 million pensions deficit was revealed after Sir Philip sold the company to Dominic Chappell in 2015. The BHS pension scheme has now been absorbed by the Pension Protection Fund at a cost of £275 million.

Asked if he would sell the company to Mr Chappell again, Sir Philip was resolute.

"Would I do that deal again, no! Please! We could be here all day! I’ve tried not to blame anyone," he said.

But he repeatedly tried to shift the blame to Chappell's lawyers, Olswang LLP, and accountant Grant Thornton, who Sir Philip said vouched for Mr Chappell and gave him credibility.

"I took comfort front Grant and Oswang backing this guy. No one knows how they came to act for him, because nobody asks," he said.

An MP replied: "Ultimately in business, although advisers advise, it was your asset to sell and your misjudgement."

"Have you ever bought something you wished you haven’t?" Sir Phil quipped back.

"A multi-million pound business with 20,000 employees, no I haven’t," the MP said.

Sir Philip said that if the business plan that had been laid out in 2015 was carried out after the sale of BHS, the company would not have gone bankrupt. He added that if he wanted the company to go under, he would have put it into administration himself.

That echoed the sentiment of BHS bosses, who last week told MPs that if the company had been better managed by Mr Chappell, it would not have collapsed.

BHS went into administration in April, putting 11,000 jobs at risk. Both Sir Philip and Mr Chappell have made a profit from their running of the business.