MPs have approved a motion recommending former BHS owner Sir Philip Green should be stripped of his knighthood.

The proposal tabled in the Commons asked for the Honours Forfeiture Committee to recommend the billionaire businessman's knighthood is "cancelled and annulled".

MPs backed the non-binding motion unopposed, meaning no full vote was needed.

The decision came after a near three-hour debate in which Sir Philip faced accusations of behaving like Napoleon and Robert Maxwell, as well as being an "asset-stripper".

Criticism of Sir Philip was constant throughout the Commons debate as MPs probed the collapse of the retail chain.

BHS went into administration shortly after being sold for £1 by Sir Philip, with a £571 million pension scheme deficit.

Labour MP David Winnick questioned how Sir Philip was deemed worthy of a knighthood in the first place, highlighting how the tycoon had put the business in the name of his wife, who lives in Monaco.

He also said: "I see Green as a billionaire spiv, a billionaire spiv who should never have received a knighthood, a billionaire spiv who has shamed British capitalism, and the least we can do today is to make our views clear and strong."

Iain Wright, chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said BHS is "one of the biggest corporate scandals of modern times".

The Labour MP told the Commons: "(Sir Philip) took the rings from BHS's fingers, he beat it black and blue, he starved it of food and water, he put it on life support, and then he wanted credit for keeping it alive.

"His extraction of value early on in his ownership made the company less able to innovate, to retain a market share or have a competitive place in the retail market, which would allow the firm to generate the profits and be in more of a position to survive the growing pension deficit.

"This drip, drip decline provided the backdrop to Sir Philip's wish to sell the business."

MPs also want Sir Philip to "fulfil his promise" to resolve the retail chain's multimillion-pound pension fund black hole.

Tory MP Richard Fuller (Bedford) suggested the retail tycoon had failed "to find his moral compass" in not addressing the store's pension deficit over the summer.

Ahead of the parliamentary debate, Sir Philip renewed hostilities with senior Labour MP Frank Field.

In a letter sent by the businessman's holding company Taveta, he accused the Labour veteran of "highly defamatory and false statements" for dragging the tycoon's Arcadia group into the BHS saga.

The letter references comments made by the MP to Channel 4, in which he compared the way BHS was run to the state of Sir Philip's Arcadia empire, which houses Topshop and Dorothy Perkins.

It accuses Mr Field of causing "distress" to Arcadia's 22,000 employees by suggesting Sir Philip is "running Arcadia into the ground like BHS".

Sir Philip's letter said there is "absolutely no substance" to the allegations.

Mr Field has led the charge against Sir Philip over BHS's collapse, dragging him before MPs to explain his actions.

Opening the debate on Thursday, Mr Field described Sir Philip as a "very successful traditional asset-stripper".

He also said: "Given my age, you may have thought I might be able to touch the hem of the garment of Napoleon.

"I never knew Napoleon, but in my mind's eye this was a character most like the Napoleon I read about in the history books while I was at school."

Downing Street said the question of Sir Philip's knighthood is a matter for the independent Honours Forfeiture Committee.

A Number 10 spokesman said: "There will obviously be a decision potentially made at some stage by the forfeitures committee.

"But that is an independent committee, the Government has no role in that at all."