Baroness Brady has resigned from Sir Philip Green’s retail empire, just weeks after vowing to stay in her post despite a harassment scandal.
Taveta, the holding company for Sir Philip’s Arcadia group, said she had stepped down as its non-executive chairman, but gave no reason.
She had been chairman since July 2017.
It comes after allegations of sexual harassment and racial abuse of staff by Sir Philip were reported earlier this month, accusations he strongly denies.
Baroness Brady had said she felt “a real sense of duty” to staff at the retail empire, including her own daughter, Sophia Peschisolido, who has been a social media content assistant at Topshop since 2016.
Ms Brady was made a life peer in 2014 and sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords.
She also runs a business leadership firm through the website strongfemaleleadership.com.
The firm said Sharon Brown had also resigned as non-executive director of Taveta.
“Taveta thanks them for their contribution and wishes them well for the future,” the company said.
Earlier this month, Sir Philip dropped legal action against the Daily Telegraph newspaper, which had been prevented from publishing accounts of his alleged misconduct towards five employees.
The paper subsequently reported that he paid a female employee more than £1m to keep quiet after she accused him of kissing and groping her.
After the allegations became public, Baroness Brady came under pressure to step down from her post at Taveta.
Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne publicly branded Brady a ‘hypocrite’ for not speaking out against Sir Philip Green.
But she responded by saying that she would stay in her post because she felt “a real sense of duty” to the people working at Taveta.
She said at the time in a statement issued through her public relations team: “I want to be 100% clear – I have always been an outspoken defender of women’s rights in the workplace and always will be.
“As chairman of Taveta, I am extremely proud of our people, our customers and our brands. My primary concern are the 20,000 people who work there, of which over 85% are women.”
