Philip Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham

Harris is currently an advisor and shareholder of Tapi Carpets, a flooring retailer set up recently by a number of the old Carpetright management team. Harris was the Chairman of Carpetright plc and has over fifty years' experience in carpet retailing. Harris left Carpetright in 2014, sold all of his shares and he is no longer associated with the company.

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.

Lord Harris is the co-owner of the Olympic gold medal-winning horse Hello Sanctos who won a gold medal with Scott Brash in the team show jumping event at the London 2012 Summer Olympics.[1]

Lord Harris and Lord Kirkham bought the horse for an estimated €2 million at the start of 2012. They are also co-owners of the horses Hello Sailor, Hello Unique and Hello Boyo.[2]

Harris has been a donor to the Tory Party since the 1980s and was a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher.

He also made donations to David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party.

He is considered to be one of his personal friends. 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".[3]

In a September 2017 interview with The Times he described Theresa May as very indecisive unlike Thatcher, hopeless during the general election campaign which she should have won easily, and was leading a weak directionless government.

He said May was mishandling the Brexit negotiations and alienated many in the business community. He also said the government's funding cuts to schools had gone too far and were a false economy and that the free schools policy should be overhauled by the Department for Education so that they are only set up in areas of place shortages.

Other comments made included his opposition to an expansion of grammar schools, Theresa May u-turning on too many decisions such as the so-called dementia tax, and the Home Office not reducing net migration to the tens of thousands as repeatedly promised. Harris spoke about potential candidates on who could succeed May as Conservative Party Leader.[4][5]

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