Ashley owns Sports Direct. He hit out at Andy Burnham on Thursday. The fight 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 advanced policies aimed at supporting troubled high streets. Ashley dismissed the approach. He said it was shaped by politics instead of practical retail knowledge. The two are in a feud. They are split on how or whether government intervention can stop the slump of town centre shopping.