Mike Ashley attacks Andy Burnham’s ‘populist’ High Street plans in letter to No 10

Accused the PM of 'jumping on everyday fixes'

Ashley said "disastrous" business rates policies and rising employment costs were leaving businesses struggling, in the letter seen by the BBC and first reported by the Financial Times.

What Mike Ashley wants from the Budget

"Shortsighted or populist reactions to underlying business challenges are not the answer," Ashley said in the letter.

He also wrote: "If your answer is to tax larger retailers even more, through hiking business rates on retailer owned or third-party warehouses whilst reducing rates for pubs and clubs, then that is simply delusional."

He called on Burnham to use his first budget, scheduled for 27 October, to lower costs for employers and change the government's position on business rates - a tax Ashley has long argued needs a fundamental overhaul, including levelling the playing field between High Street retailers and their online rivals.

Pubs, social clubs and live music venues are already due a 20% rates cut from April, and a review has been launched into how the tax is calculated.

Downing Street pushes back

According to a Downing Street spokesperson, 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".

Cutting VAT on household electricity bills and reducing business rates for some firms was "just the start", they added.

The letter takes aim at announcements made since Burnham succeeded Sir Keir Starmer, a period in which the PM promised to revitalise Britain's "hollowed out" high streets by helping councils block new vaping and betting shops.

The PM also brought forward a plan to end subscription traps and ban misleading recommended retail prices.

Burnham also told British business to match Sainsbury's 10,000 work placements part of a busy opening stretch, covered in our rundown of everything the new PM has done since coming to power.