Philip Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham

Philip Charles Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham (born 15 September in Peckham South London, 1942) is a Conservative member of the House of Lords and businessman.

Biography

Business Interests

Harris is the chairman of Carpetright plc and has over 40 years’ experience in carpet retailing and is one of the best known names in the business. He was chairman and chief executive of Harris Carpets. Harris Carpets acquired Queensway in 1977 to become Harris Queensway plc until the company was taken over in 1988. Lord Harris was also a non-executive director of Great Universal Stores plc for 18 years, retiring from the GUS Board in July 2004. Lord Harris became a non-executive director of Matalan in October 2004.

He was appointed to the board of Arsenal Football Club as a non-executive director in November 2005. He owns, through holding companies, 53 shares, representing 0.00085% of the company.

Other

He was made a Life peer as Baron Harris of Peckham, of Peckham in the London Borough of Southwark in 1996.

He has contributed extensively to education and as a result, many schools and colleges (such as Harris Manchester College, Oxford) bears his name. Many secondary schools in Southwark have received Harris donations. In the London Borough of Croydon, he helped to found the Harris City Technology College and the Harris Academy South Norwood, although many local residents are angered that the original name of the school, Stanley Technical High School, was dropped in place of the Harris name. [cite web |title = South Norwood residents demand Stanley's name is retained at new Harris Academy|publisher= CroydonLabour |url=http://www.croydonlabour.com/press_releases?PageId=df052888-b778-1504-c5dd-bede095be195 |accessdate=2007-03-02]

The Lord ranked 206th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, with an estimated wealth of £285m. (2004 162nd £254m, 2005 192nd £250m).

Harris made donations to David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. He is considered to be one of his personal friends. He is said to have played a role in convincing Cameron to contest the party's leadership in the summer of 2005. His ties to Cameron came under scrutiny two years later when it appeared that Andrew Feldman, a political associate of his and a fellow donor to Cameron's leadership campaign, used Harris's name to claim privileges accorded to active members of the House of Lords (which Harris, his peerage notwithstanding, had never been.) A report in The Independent newspaper quoted a senior member of the Lords Privileges Committee as suggesting the allegation shows how fundraising "pollutes our politics". [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2823089.ece]

References