‘Disgraceful’ Sports Direct accused of ‘secretly recording’ MPs

Camera was hidden beneath stool in meeting room during tour of Shirebrook premises

Mike Ashley says he wants Sports Direct to be the Selfridges of Sports (PA)

Scandal-struck retailer Sports Direct has been accused of attempting to secretly record a group of MPs having a private conversation during a warehouse inspection.

Six MPs from the business select committee arrived to carry out a spot-check of the company’s controversial Shirebrook premises – a facility previously described as a “gulag” – where they claimed management used “diversionary tactics” during a three-hour tour of the site.

Following the extensive tour, the six MPs retired to a private room to discuss what they’d seen, where they said they found a camera recording their conversation.

Anna Turley, the Labour MP for Redcar said: “At the end of the meeting, we sat down to have a private conversation in a room by ourselves.

“A lady came in with some sandwiches, which was very kind. I saw her take too long to do it, she put it down and I saw her put a recording device on the floor.

“She left the room and I went over to pick up the device and there it was: a camera and a recording device for the conversation that we were having privately.

“I'm very disappointed.”

Ms Turley added: “How can we not believe that there is something to hide when everything has been so suspicious and not done with the spirit of openness?”

Sports Direct chief executive Mike Ashley had been previously warned by MPs they would make an unannounced visit to inspect the warehouse after the company faced harsh criticism over working conditions for staff.

Mr Ashley vowed to make improvements to working practices labelled as being “Victorian”. Many employees were on zero-hours contracts, were paid below the minimum wage, and were reportedly “too frightened” to take time off work if they were ill.

The MPs taking part in the inspection include select committee chairman Iain Wright, along with Peter Kyle, Michelle Thomson, Anna Turley, Amanda Solloway and Craig Tracey.

Mr Wright said: “I'm really disappointed in the nature and spirit in which Sports Direct have conducted this visit.

“I'm not suggesting that they were going to welcome us with open arms - we are a select committee that has been critical of working practices turning up unannounced.

“The fact that the sandwich woman who came into the room when the select committee was having a private conversation about what we had discovered... to have a recording device... I mean that's absolutely disgraceful.

“That's not the manner in which I want to conduct relations with Sports Direct. We have been critical of Mike Ashley and his company, but we want to work with him, the trade unions, with workers and others to ensure that proper, appropriate and dignified working practices are put in place.

“Why does he have that lack of trust when we have offered to work with him in an open and constructive manner?“

Mr Wright spoke to Mr Ashley by telephone after the MPs left the warehouse, according to the Press Association.

“I don't think it was a particularly pleasant conversation for either of us,” he said.

“I would have liked Mike Ashley to have been here.

“We were always going to turn up unannounced. It's what he said we could do when he came before us in June and it's what we've done now.

“I want to work with Mike Ashley in a constructive manner. I don't think he wants to work with us at all anymore.

Mr Ashley, who founded the sports leisure-wear company, became chief executive in September, following the resignation of Dave Forsey. The move came days after the company bowed to pressure and pledged to undertake an independent review of working practices and corporate governance.

Mr Wright added: “I wanted this visit to be part of a journey of progress and improvement so that we could work together to say, 'Yep, you've really done some good stuff, well done, and this is what needs to be happening'.

“But in terms of the way it's been handled: the diversionary tactics, the secret recordings of private select committee deliberations, that is really disgusting and something I really can't agree with.”

Additional reporting by PA