Green told MPs that the collapse of BHS under the ownership of Chappell’s company Retail Acquisitions Ltd (RAL) was ‘beyond horrible, it’s sad – we had zero intention of this happening’ and pledged to find a solution for BHS’s g £571m pension deficit, although he would not give details.

‘It’s resolvable and sortable. I want to give assurance to the 20,000 pensioners that I am here to sort this, in the correct way. We are working on it. As we speak there is a team currently working. It is in motion,’ Green said.

During sometimes fiery and argumentative exchanges, Green outlined earlier plans for the pension scheme under Project Thor, which was developed with Deloitte, which he claimed had not been considered by the pensions regulator but were now being revived.

These proposals were designed to provide an outcome for BHS pension members, many of whom are part time workers on salaries under £18,000, with a better outcome that they would get if the scheme went into the Pension Protection Fund.

Following the evidence session, The Pensions Regulator said that it had not blocked approaches from BHS, and was prepared to consider new proposals from the company, but was waiting for an offer. Chris Martin, the head of BHS’s pension trustees, said Green could face costs of around £110m to restructure BHS’s pension deficit if he followed the Project Thor proposals.

In a joint statement, Iain Wright, chair of the BIS committee, and Frank Field, chair of the work and pensions committee, said of Green’s comments: ‘We were pleased to hear that he is still trying to put together a better deal for the BHS pensioners. We hope he will come up with an offer that is satisfactory to the pension regulator.  However, he doesn’t only have to satisfy the pensions regulator, today he is before the bar of public opinion. Much of his reputation now depends on how generously he responds.’

Green told MPs that selling BHS to Chappell had been an ‘honest mistake’, saying: ‘I made a bad call selling this business to RAL. We found the wrong guy.’

However, Green was heavily critical of the advisers to Chappell prior to his bid, arguing that their work on due diligence served to give him ‘credibility’.

Green claimed in his evidence to MPs that Grant Thornton, which performed financial due diligence, and law firm Olswang had collected more than £8m from the deal. Green alleged that both firms had worked for Chappell ‘on contingency’ and said: ‘They didn’t know him from a hole in the wall.’

The select committee session also heard a series of exchanges about the structure of the various companies within the Arcadia group and those owned by members of the Green family, and their relationship to BHS.

At one point, Green said he had no sight of Carmen Properties’ accounts – the vehicle which owns Arcadia’s property – which is held in his wife’s name. He also repeatedly said he could not remember certain financial details.

In their joint statement, the committee chairs said: ‘Today’s evidence raised host of further questions and we first want to get much more detail on the structure of various companies, particularly those owned by Lady Cristina Green, the profits they have made and the tax they have paid.

‘We have more witnesses scheduled at the end of June and in the last few days we have received a huge amount of further evidence. We have many further questions for Sir Philip, particularly the big questions on the pension fund that he was unable to answer today.’

Further details of these evidence sessions, due to be held on the afternoon of Tuesday 28 June and morning of Wednesday 29 June, are to be published in due course.

Among the witnesses who have already appeared in front of MPs, but are to be recalled, are Anthony Gutman, the co-head, EMEA investment banking services, Goldman Sachs, and Paul Budge, finance director of Arcadia Group. Neville Khan, managing partner, Deloitte is also slated to appear who specialises in insolvency.