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 said they would be disastrous for retail.
Burnham is the Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has advanced policies focused on bolstering troubled high streets. Ashley rejected the stance. He said it was driven by politics instead of hands-on retail knowledge. The two are at loggerheads. They disagree on how or whether government action can stop the slide of town centre shopping.