Sir Philip Green ends legal action against Daily Telegraph

The Topshop boss decided the case was 'pointless' after a Labour peer used parliamentary privilege to name him in the House of Lords

Sir Philip Green’s legal action against the Telegraph has officially been dropped.

Sir Philip had sought an injunction against the newspaper to prevent it from naming him in a report on allegations of misconduct including sexual harassment and bullying.

However, the Topshop boss decided to drop the case because it was “pointless” after he was named in parliament as the businessman behind the injunction.

Court of Appeal judges temporarily barred the newspaper from identifying the tycoon or revealing "confidential information" relating to allegations of misconduct made against him by five employees.

The judges said there was a "real prospect" that publication would cause "substantial and possibly irreversible harm" to the claimants.

But former Cabinet minister Lord Hain used parliamentary privilege to name Sir Philip in the House of Lords two days after the court's ruling in October.

The High Court ruled on Friday that the retail tycoon could discontinue the proceedings.

In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Warby granted the Topshop owner permission to discontinue the proceedings.

Lawyers representing the Topshop owner and two of his companies previously told the court that going ahead with a trial would have been "worse" than ending the action.

James Price QC said the decision was prompted by Lord Hain's identification of Sir Philip in the House of Lords in October last year, a day after the Telegraph ran a front-page story saying it was prevented from naming a "mystery businessman".

In a statement issued after the ruling, Sir Philip and the board of the Arcadia Group said the signatories to the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) were under "ongoing obligations" to honour the agreements.

The statement continued: "The Telegraph has pursued a vendetta against Sir Philip Green and the employees and management of Arcadia Group for the past nine months, harassing many of its staff and their families in their homes, often at night and at weekends.

"The Telegraph and its owners must now decide whether to do the decent thing and respect the NDAs.

"If not, they will expose their sources to potential further legal actions and significant losses. Their fate is now in the Telegraph's hands."

Additional reporting by newswires