Boohoo’s biggest shareholders have been urged to oust its chair and co-founder Mahmud Kamani and boss John Lyttle following a damning report into working conditions and pay in the warehouses of its Leicester suppliers.

Shadow health minister and MP for Leicester West Liz Kendall has written to investors Jupiter, Invesco and Baillie Gifford, according to the Daily Mail.

The letter encourages the firms to remove Kamani and Lyttle for their role in “allowing these appalling failures to take place”. 

It comes after an independent review led by Alison Levitt QC uncovered “many failings” in Boohoo’s work with garment manufacturers in the city.

The probe concluded that Boohoo “did not deliberately allow poor conditions and low pay to exist”, but recommended a series of improvements to the fashion etailer’s corporate governance, compliance and monitoring processes. 

The report found that Boohoo was aware of the situation back in December 2019, but had been slow to react to the problems.

Boohoo admitted last month that new processes it was putting in place “did not advance quickly enough”.

Kendall’s letter to the trio of investors read: “I am calling on you and Boohoo’s other shareholders to demand a new chair and chief executive to lead the changes the company and the people of Leicester desperately need.

“It would make a mockery of any claims to support responsible investing if the same executives who allowed these appalling failures to take place, despite repeated warnings over many years, were kept in place.”

Other Leicester MPs Jonathan Ashworth, Claudia Webbe and Andrew Bridgen have also called for a shake-up at the fashion giant in the wake of Levitt’s investigation.

Boohoo’s share price collapsed after the modern slavery investigations first emerged in July, but that has since recovered after the business revealed findings of the review, and posted surging sales and profits during the first half of its financial year.

Pre-tax profit jumped 51% to £68m during the six months to August 31, following a 45% spike in revenues to £817m.

Boohoo’s market cap had recovered to £4.5bn as markets closed yesterday.

Lyttle, Kamani and his fellow co-founder Carol Kane all stand to take home eight-figure bonuses if the retailer’s valuation hits £7.5bn by June 2023.

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