MPs have rejected an invitation from Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley to visit the retailer’s Shirebrook warehouse to inspect working conditions.

Chairman of the House of Commons Business select committee Iain Wright said in a letter to Mr Ashley: “The committee has considered carefully your repeated and conditional request that we visit Shirebrook before this date” however, he added that the committee " does not accept that witnesses attach conditions to attending in response to a summons”.

A Sports Direct Spokesman noted that Ashley is "disappointed that members of the committee have chosen not to visit Shirebrook in order to see working conditions with their own eyes, as we continue to believe that this is obviously the best way forward".

"The committee are well aware that Mike Ashley's proposal to attend Westminster on June 7 was made on the understanding that MPs would visit Shirebrook on any day in advance of June 6."
"The committee are clearly being unfair, Mike will therefore now seek legal advice with regard to his position in relation to June 7," the spokesman added.