The Sports Direct founder, Mike Ashley, is to be formally summonsed to appear before MPs to explain his company’s treatment of its workers.
Ashley will be issued with a demand to appear before the business select committee on 7 June after refusing to agree to a number of dates suggested by MPs.
A spokesman for the committee said it was reserving the right to take the matter further, “including seeking the support of the House of Commons in respect of any complaint of contempt” should the tycoon refuse to attend.
A spokesman for Sports Direct said: “We are extremely disappointed that the committee has apparently chosen to turn down Mike Ashley’s invitation to visit [the company’s head office in] Shirebrook to see things with their own eyes.” He added that the company would respond to the committee “in due course”.
The formal demand is the latest development in a spat between Ashley and MPs.
Last week, Ashley accused the committee of being “deliberately antagonistic” and abusing parliamentary procedure by trying to force him to give evidence.
In a letter to Iain Wright, the chairman of the business, innovation and skills committee, the Newcastle United boss said he was disgusted by the MPs’ approach. That came after the committee warned him publicly last week that he risked being in contempt of parliament if he failed to appear.
Wright wrote to Ashley saying the committee wanted to ask him about his company’s treatment of staff, enforcement of the minimum wage and his internal review of Sports Direct’s practices.
The request came after a Guardian report last December into the treatment of workers at Sports Direct’s Debyshire headquarters that found they were subject to surveillance and lengthy searches that meant they effectively earned less than the minimum wage.
Ashley offered to meet MPs privately at Shirebrook but Wright declined, citing the “select committee’s commitment to transparency”.
The standoff is the second time Ashley has resisted attempts to make him appear before MPs. He declined an invitation to attend the Scottish affairs select committee last year, explaining he was busy on the dates suggested. Instead, the company sent its chairman, Keith Hellawell, who struggled to answer detailed questions.
Ashley’s unwillingness to go to parliament could test MPs’ powers to call in reluctant witnesses.
It is highly unusual for business leaders to refuse a request to appear before a select committee. Rupert Murdoch was summonsed by the culture, media and sport committee in 2011 when he refused to give evidence on phone hacking. Murdoch and his son James eventually appeared at the committee after the deputy sergeant-at-arms was sent to deliver formal summonses in person.
Also in 2011, the boss of Kraft, Irene Rosenfeld, refused to attend parliament to answer questions about the US food company’s acquisition of Cadbury’s, sending members of her team instead.
Committees can seek the support of the House of Commons in providing a summons, putting Ashley at risk of contempt of the house if he refuses, but it is unclear what the potential sanctions could be.
A government green paper on parliamentary privilege in 2012 found that, in theory, parliament could summon a person to reprimand, issue a fine or order their imprisonment.
But another report that year concluded committees did not have the power to compel witnesses to attend. That report, written by barristers Richard Gordon QC and Amy Street for the Constitution Society, said parliament’s formal powers had not been used for hundreds of years and might not apply in the present day. Any attempt to exercise them could be tested in the courts.
Separately, Sports Direct has argued in court this week that a criminal charge against its chief executive, Dave Forsey, linked to the collapse of the group’s USC fashion chain should be thrown out. The presiding judge said on Tuesday that he would rule on whether there was a case to answer next month.
Forsey is accused of failing to give authorities, including the business secretary, sufficient notice of plans to lay off staff at a USC warehouse in Scotland. About 200 people were given just 15 minutes notice by USC’s administrator last January that they were losing their jobs.
