In 1994, House of Fraser went public, but Fayed retained the private ownership of Harrods. He re-launched the humour publication Punch in 1996 but it folded again in 2002. Al-Fayed applied for British citizenship twice – once in 1994 and once in 1999 unsuccessfully. It was suggested that the feud with Rowland contributed to Fayed's being refused British citizenship the first time.
In 1994, in what became known as the cash-for-questions affair, Mohammed Fayed revealed the names of MPs he had paid to ask questions in parliament on his behalf, but who had failed to declare their fees. It saw the Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith leave the government in disgrace, and a Committee on Standards in Public Life established to prevent such corruption occurring again. Fayed also revealed that the cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken had stayed for free at the Ritz Hotel in Paris at the same time as a group of Saudi arms dealers leading to Aitken's subsequent unsuccessful libel case and imprisonment for perjury. During this period, from 1988 to February 1998, Al-Fayed's spokesman was Michael Cole, a former BBC journalist, although Cole's PR work for Al-Fayed did not cease in 1998.
In 1994, Hermínia da Silva quit her job as a nanny at Al-Fayed's home in Oxted. Silva had prepared accusations that she was sexually harassed by Al-Fayed, and she was subsequently arrested by detectives and held overnight in cells following a complaint of theft by an employee of Al-Fayed's. She was later released without charge after officers concluded she had not stolen anything. Al-Fayed eventually settled with her out of court, and she was awarded £12,000.