Angela Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow First Secretary of State and Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, commenting on the announcement of the review by the Insolvency Service into the collapse of BHS, said:

“Following days of pressure from the Labour Party and the announcement last week of a joint Select Committee inquiry, this latest statement from the Government on the BHS affair is very welcome.

“The former owners took hundreds of millions of pounds out of the business, before leaving a pension black hole which is now estimated to be worth £571 million. If the former owners acted inappropriately, we need to ensure that they pay their fair share of the deficit, rather than leaving the Pension Protection Scheme – and other pension funds – to pick up the bill.

“But beyond this individual case, the Tory Government needs to consider the wider lessons for how our economy works. We need an economy that incentivises value and job creation, rather than value extraction.”