Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has launched a fierce public rebuke of Andy Burnham’s cost-of-living and retail policies, accusing the prime minister of “populist reactions” in a letter seen by the BBC and first reported by the Financial Times.
A letter to the prime minister
In the correspondence, the billionaire entrepreneur behind Frasers Group warned that “shortsighted or populist reactions to underlying business challenges are not the answer”. He accused Burnham of “jumping on ‘everyday fixes’ or bandwagons” and argued that the government’s business rates position and the rising cost of employing people were “really causing business to struggle”. Ashley built Frasers Group from a single Sports Direct store in Maidenhead in 1982 into a sprawling retail empire employing some 30,000 people.
The business rates battle
Ashley reserved some of his sharpest language for a proposal to raise business rates on large warehouses to fund cuts for pubs, clubs and live music venues, calling the idea “delusional”. He has long campaigned for an overhaul of the tax to level the playing field between high street retailers and online rivals such as Amazon. Burnham, before entering Downing Street, had floated paying for pub and club cuts through higher levies on warehouses operated by online firms and on owners of empty high street properties. From April, pubs, social clubs and live music venues are due to receive a 20% business rates cut, and a wider review of how the tax is calculated has been launched.
Downing Street’s response
A Downing Street spokesperson said Burnham would “build a new economy that backs British business, delivers growth in every postcode and ensures the essentials in life – like energy, water and housing – are affordable again”. The spokesman added that promises including cutting VAT from household electricity bills and reducing business rates for some firms were “just the start”. Ashley, however, dismissed related announcements as “hot air” and warned the high street would be “further devastated” without major reform.
Why it matters
The clash lays bare a tension at the heart of Burnham’s economic agenda. The prime minister has pledged to revitalise Britain’s “hollowed out” high streets by helping councils block new vaping and betting shops, end subscription traps and ban misleading recommended retail prices. Ashley’s counter is that those measures tinker at the edges while the real burden on business – business rates and employment costs – goes unaddressed.
What happens next
Ashley has urged Burnham to use his first Budget, scheduled for 27 October, to lower costs for employers and change course on business rates. With the Treasury review ongoing and the cuts for hospitality firms taking effect in the spring, the standoff between the government and one of Britain’s best-known retailers is likely to intensify in the run-up to the fiscal statement.
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Source: Original report. Rewrite for Your News Website.
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