MPs have called on the government to protect Poundland and other high street stores from “predatory capitalism” and asset-stripping.

The fate of the retail chain and its 12,000 staff remains uncertain after it filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators at the high court last Thursday.

The board of Poundland has lined up the advisory company AlixPartners to run the process after the owner, US restructuring specialist Gordon Brothers, ceased providing funding.

In an urgent question in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Gareth Snell, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central , asked the government what could be done to “send a message to Gordon Brothers that the predatory capitalism that they are putting into this company will not be tolerated, because we in this country will always stand with people before profit”.

Another Labour MP, Antonia Bance, asked what measures the government would use to “hold Gordon Brothers to account”, and if it would “establish an urgent review of whether our corporate…