Ashley owns Sports Direct. He attacked Andy Burnham on Thursday. The clash was over plans to revive the UK high street. Ashley called those proposals populist and delusional. He maintained they would be disastrous for retail.
Burnham is the Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has pushed policies aimed at supporting troubled high streets. Ashley dismissed the strategy. He said it was steered by politics instead of hands-on retail knowledge. The two are at odds. They are split on how or whether government action can undo the slide of town centre shopping.