Ashley owns Sports Direct. He attacked Andy Burnham on Thursday. The fight was about plans to revive the UK high street. Ashley labelled those proposals populist and delusional. He maintained they would be disastrous for retail.
Burnham is the Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has advanced policies directed at aiding troubled high streets. Ashley rebuffed the strategy. He said it was driven by politics rather than direct retail knowledge. The two are at loggerheads. They differ on how or whether government intervention can stop the decline of town centre shopping.