Sports Direct shares have closed up more than 5% at 383.2p, adding a cool £65m to the value Mike Ashley’s stake.

On that note, we’ll close up. Thanks for all your comments, and we’ll be back tomorrow.

Bloomberg have helpfully captured the testimony from Unite about the Victorian workhouse conditions at Sports Direct’s warehouse:

Sports Direct shares have been climbing this morning, and are now up 5%.

That may show relief that Ashley didn’t reveal fresh trading problems, or optimism that he might beef up the company’s management.

Other retailers are also rising, though, after a report showed spending rose in May.

City AM have rounded up the best quotes from Mike Ashley’s appearance:

On being the boss: “I can’t be responsible for everything that goes on at Sports Direct. I can’t be.”

On giving it his all: “I can only do my best but my best might not be good enough.”

On corporate bonding: “I dunno what you call it. Fun day? Corporate day? We call its Sports Direct day.” “The value of Sports Direct is its people.”

On BHS: “I can’t resist it: 100 per cent I wanted to buy BHS.”

On ignoring PR people: “I won’t listen to them because I can’t be house trained”

On why he gets up in the morning: “I didn’t build Sports Direct, Sports Direct built me.”

On whether or not he is Santa: “I’m not Father Christmas, I’m not saying I’ll make the world wonderful.” “I don’t think I’m Santa Claus.”

On answering questions from MPs: “I’m one human being! So stop it Paul! Let’s keep things positive!” “It’s been positive so far, stop making it negative.”

On women in the workplace: “What do you call it...sexual...within the office? Harassment!”

On ending sexual harassment: “Simple as that fellas. Not just fellas. Girls. Sorry.”

On sexual harassment at Sainsbury’s: “Are you sure it’s not happening Sainsbury’s? I think it probably is.”

On managers creeping on women: “They’re repugnant, they’re disgusting”

And here are some video clips:

At least one City shareholder isn’t impressed by Mike Ashley’s admissions:

They hold less than 0.2% of Sports Direct, though, compared to Ashley’s 55%.

Ashley has left the building....

Q: Do you admit that there have been aspects of business at Sports Direct that have made workers more exposed to exploitation?

Ashley tries to dodge this question.... returning to his point about the security queues were too long.

And then he insists that the review of working practice is ongoing --

It will carry on when I’m in the grave.

Q: Will you commit to meeting with Unite about their concerns?

Mike Ashley looks highly reluctant to hold a special meeting with the union. Instead, let’s have a meeting at our AGM in September.

Everyone’s welcome, he claims -- surprising journalists who were banned from last year’s gig.

Q: Why wait until September? You could meet Unite now.

Ashley suggest the union is concerned about furthering its interests, not the workers.

He then admits that he “said hello to them last year” at the AGM – [hardly a wide-ranging discussion of the situation]

Q: Could you sign up to a 10-point list of improvements, asks Iain Wright MP (clearly keen to get some commitments out of his witness).

Ashley suggests that he might....

Q: Do you have confidence in the agencies you have used?

Yes....but I’ve also been surprised by the mistakes that have been made, such as the queues to get through security.

Q: Well, who’s to blame and who has the ultimate responsibility?

Ultimate responsibility is mine, Ashley replies. I build this company.

And then he repeats that Sports Direct may have now outgrown his ability to run it. This really isn’t a typical performance from a top UK boss.

Ashley is now arguing that he can’t just wave a magic wand to fix everything that’s gone wrong.

But he’s committed to fixing it - as long as MPs have a “reasonable expectation” of what can be achieved.

The committee look stunned....

Paul Blomfield MP tries to nail Ashley down - is it fair that temporary workers employed through Transline aren’t able to take work elsewhere?

If it’s true, then it’s clearly unreasonable, Ashley replies. You can answer your own question.

Q: So why did you allow it?

I don’t take all the decisions, an impassioned Ashley hits back (and hits the table another two dozen times).

Q: But aren’t you negligent for not knowing the full details of how staff were employed?

Let’s say I had “no idea”, Ashley replies ruefully. That’s not fair....

Ashley’s mask of bonhomie is slipping -- he loses his cool with Paul Blomfield MP for questioning his claim that internet shopping forced Sports Direct to take on thousands of agency workers.

You must accept that this was a phenomenon that we couldn’t predict, and also accept that we’ve made mistakes, says Ashley – giving his table a fearful thumping.

Blomfield’s point, though, is that other retailers have adjusted to e-commerce without such problems.

Ashley says that agencies are experts at what they do that’s why they use them.

Really? I was hired after responding to an ad and then filling in a form, plus a very quick interview with somebody who only spoke broken English. The clincher was being asked if I could turn up at 5am the next day. I could, so I was in.

[And that led to the investigation that exposed the conditions at Sports Direct]

MPs are pushing Ashley to promise to take on more permanent staff.

He argues that Sports Direct can’t suddenly hire an army of permanent staff -- and he claims it was “physically impossible” to predict internet shopping.

Some reaction from a frankly stunned financial press:

A classic Freudian slip from the Sports Direct boss.

Asked if he’d seek independent help in changing its management structure, Ashley says it’s hard to create a process to create a better “income”.

I think he means outcome. But Ashley is a billionaire, so maybe it’s the same thing.

What about the allegations that temporary workers were offered a permanent job in return for sexual favours?

That’s clearly wrong, Ashley agrees. And then he suggests that it probably happens at Sainsbury’s too!

Another bizarre moment, as Ashley is asked if he’s a kind person.

His PR man, Keith Bishop, tries to answer but is brushed aside.

Jonathan Reynolds MP says Ashley’s open performance means he doesn’t need to bring a PR executive in future.

We’ll halve your fee Keith, Ashley jokes.

Ashley then concedes that it wasn’t kind for a worker to be told that she was selfish for leaving work on time.

Ashley defends using agencies to supply workers - saying they are the experts in this area.

He’s now blaming the boom in online shopping, which has meant Shirebrook needed more and more workers.

He admits that the warehouse doesn’t yet have the automation it needs (something we flagged up in our investigation).

And he admits that the queues at security have been unacceptable.

I’ve never quite seen a performance from a CEO like this one.

Ashley just told MPs that “I’ve not always been on my game, but if you judge that then you throw out the other 30 years when I was on my game.”

This makes him a tricky target to hit.....

Ashley is promising progress on his independent review within 180 days....

There’s some curious note-passing going on too....

Mike Ashley then explains that retail is unpredictable - it rains sometimes, don’tya know.

Working out how to supply stock across a whole retailer is an art.

Q: So, is it correct that 80% of Sports Direct staff are on zero-hours contracts? Couldn’t some move onto a permanent contract?

Yup, Ashley grunts, and then gives his table another thumping. It’s a reasonable idea, and he intends to make progress on it.

Q: Are you happy that a Sports Direct worker was called selfish, for ending their shift on time?

Mike Ashley has a think..... and asks if we’re really sure that happened.

Q: We’ve got the evidence here...

Oh well, in that case it’s clearly wrong.

Asked about pay, Ashley says 80% of directly employed staff in stores are on some kind of bonus structure.

Q: Are you happy with the six strikes policy at the warehouse?

Yes, if it’s implemented fairly, says Ashley.

There’s then a brief moment of levity, as the chairman Iain Wright says Ashley sounds like a government minister (pledging an ongoing review).

The committee ask Ashley about reports of Sports Direct staff getting drunk in the local city centre

I can’t stop people drinking, Ashley replies... What would you do about it, he asks?

He’s reminded that the MPs are asking the questions....

Q: Why were so many ambulances called to Sports Direct’s warehouse?

It’s excessive, Ashley replies. But he suggests that staff have been overhasty - calling 999 when they could have just given the worker a glass of water.

Q: I don’t think calling an ambulance when a worker gives birth in the toilets is excessive...

Ashley is silenced (briefly....)

Q: Are you aware that a worker was promised sexual favours in return for a permanent position?

I’m 100% unaware of that, Ashley insists.

We’ve waited a long time for Ashley’s hearing -- six long months since the Guardian exposed the situation at Shirebrook.

But it’s been worth the wait.

Q: Could MPs drop in unannounced at Shirebrook?

100%, 24-7, Ashley replies. Anyone here is free to do it.

I’m telling you, you’ll find things wrong, he adds - but things are getting better.

Q: Are workers now getting paid overtime for working late? (the Guardian exposed that it didn’t happen)

Not yet, Ashley says.

Q: And are you still haranguing workers over the tannoy system?

Thumping the table again, Ashley claims this is a bit of a myth.

We do use the tannoy, but to tell staff where to go - like an airport, directing passengers to their gate.

If we are abusing it, we deserve the cane.

I don’t think that’s within the committee’s remit....

MPs are now asking why Sports Direct can’t search workers BEFORE they check out.

This is an obvious point - and almost certainly would have been done if it was that simple. But it’s not as easy as that because of the current layout of the warehouse.

Mike Ashley is now explaining that he knows his workers closely - he regularly eats with them in the staff canteen to find what’s going on.

Q: But does that mean you’re the right person to investigate the allegations against the company?

For as long I’m at Sports Direct, the review into working practices will go on. And it will be totally independent, he replies.

Ashley is now thumping the table, insisting that the review will be successful.

<thump thump thump>

Q: Would you work with the Unite union to discuss the problems they’ve heard?

I can do a better job for the workers than Unite, Ashley declares.

If you’re just tuning in, Unite officials told MPs of a “culture of fear” at Shirebrook, which led one worker to give birth in the toilets because she was afraid to take time off.

In 21st century Britain.

Oh, the perils of business success....

The committee are keen to find what oversight Ashley has over Sports Direct.

Waving his hands and miming typing, Ashley is explaining that the company creates thousands of reports.

Staff should alert me when there are red flags and problems, not when things are running smoothly.

Q: Transline [one of the agencies supplying staff] just told us that they only got 45 replies to a survey (out of 2000). Are you surprised?

Ashley looks highly unsurprised - people say they want to give feedback, but they rarely take it up. That’s why he prefers to talk to people on the shop floor.

Mike Ashley has now admitted that the searches revealed by the Guardian mean he was breaking the law by paying workers less than the minimum wage.

This is a major concession and should mean sanctions from HMRC. The company said in December: “Sports Direct believes it’s in compliance with minimum wage regulations and takes its responsibilities extremely seriously.”

Q: Have you discovered things that you’re not happy with?

Ashley admits that some things have come as “a bit of an unpleasant surprise”, and he cites the bottlenecks at the Shirehouse warehouse which have been addressed (he says).

Mike Ashley has arrived, wearing a Newcastle United tie.

His PR man, Keith Bishop, is here too.

Reminder, you can watch it live here.

And that’s the end of the second mini-session.

I can safely say that MPs were not impressed with what they heard from the two companies who supply staff to Sports Direct.

Next up, Mike Ashley!

More guffawing, as Transline’s Jennifer Hardy claims that a face-to-face survey of agency workers at Shirebrook was “anonymous”.

Sports Direct workers aren’t impressed with the agency’s performance:

(bit=but)

Transline’s Jennifer Hardy reveals that 45 staff, out of 2,000, responded to a survey about work conditions.

She argues that this may show that people are happy. MPs, though, suggest it is because people are scared.

Transline just said its office in warehouse has an “open door policy”.

That’s not quite how the workers view it - or I remember it. This from my piece in December:

“The result seems to be a workforce afraid of the sack – but also afraid to quit and seek a job elsewhere.

‘People won’t leave because they don’t think they will find anything else. Most of the Polish people who work there don’t speak a word of English,’ says one eastern European worker

Everyone’s afraid of the [employment agency] office. As soon as you go into the office you think they are probably going to sack you’.”

Q: Who set the strikes policy?

Chris Birkby says Transline inherited the strikes policy when they began supplying workers to Sports Direct.

Iain Wright MP points out that the policy means a worker could be dismissed if they asked for time off to visit family overseas.

Transline’s Jennifer Hardy argues that the policy protects workers <cue laughing in the public seats>. Wearing headphones is banned, to stop someone being run over by a vehicle in the factory.

The agencies are struggling to give any convincing reasons why a 336-hours-per-year contract is better than a zero hour’s one.

A zinger of a question from Iain Wright.

After Jennifer Hardy, Transline’s finance director, takes a sip of water, he asks if it’s right that a Sports Direct worker would get a “strike” for asking for a drink out of the designated area.

Hardy agrees that this isn’t right, but also suggests that employees don’t want workers getting drinks all the time.

Q: What have you done to improve conditions at Sports Direct?

Transline’s Chris Birkby says they have work to reduce queuing time to clock out, and started holding HR surgeries.

We held a recent anonymous survey, and 96% of staff were satisfied, or above, he says.

Transline’s claim that it voluntarily withdrew from Gangmaster Licensing Authority process may surprise the GLA itself.

According to the GLA, it’s parent company, Qualitycourse, lost the licence after “ refusing to provide sufficient details relating to its travel and expenses scheme.”

The GLA said in a statement in 2014 that:

For obstructing the inspection process, the GLA decided that the named Principal Authority on the licence, Colin Beasley, and other named directors of Qualitycourse had failed the ‘fit and proper’ person test. This is a critical requirement for a GLA licence.

Another issue uncovered included workers not being paid for attending induction sessions, which failed another standard.

Not exactly an “admin error”.....

Here’s an example of the form which agency workers are handed, to sign up for a prepaid debit cards on their wages.

Q: Do you feel a duty of care to the staff at Sports Direct?

Yes, absolutely, the Transline representatives reply,

Q: But we’ve heard that the Gangmasters Licensing Authority has barred you from providing labour to the food industry.

Transline’s Jennifer Hardy says the company voluntarily withdrew from the application process.

Q: Amanda Milling MP asks about the insurance which some agency workers are paying.

Best Connection’s Andy Sweeney says this insurance is optional.

When the panel talks about a “336 contract” - they mean a contract that guarantees 336 hours over a 12-month period. This is equivalent to 1.4 hours a day, assuming a five-day week. So the distinction between 336 contracts and zero hour contracts is effectively meaningless.

Q: Why are some workers being paid on pre-paid cards? (with those steep fees which Unite are so concerned about)

Chris Birkby, Managing Director of agency group Transline, says the cards are optional. He defends them, saying they let workers get their wages quickly, and avoid being hit by high charges elsewhere.

It’s there to help workers, he insists.

Andy Sweeney of Best Connection (the other agency firm engaged at Sports Direct’s warehouse) says his firm doesn’t offer these cards.

Q: Where do the fees go?

Birkby says some goes to Contis, the company which supplies the cards. But there is also a fee to Transline.

Q: Why are agency workers on contracts only guaranteeing 336 hours per year?

That’s that’s the minimum requirement set by HMRC.

Some instant reaction from the committee:

Here’s our news story about the revelation that Sports Direct is going to compensate its staff, for effectively paying below the minimum wage:

Q: What needs to be done to fix these problems?

Steven Turner singles out the pernicious impact of zero hours contracts.

New Zealand have outlawed zero hours contracts - and the companies who used them have managed to move onto rosters.

He also wants the Gangmasters licensing authority given more authority to control agencies.

And that’s the end of the hearing.

The Health and Safety executive needs to take a closer took at Sports Direct, and other warehouses, Turner adds.

Q: Is Sports Direct willfully causing these problems, or is it a managerial misunderstanding?

Turner says it’s a “determined business model”, set by the top.

There is no need to employ workers through these agencies, with on zero hours contracts or short-term contracts. If you cut out the agencies, you could pay staff more.

Sports Direct has a “contempt for human rights”, Turner continues, as he continues to lambast Mike Ashley for the problems at Shirebrook.

Q: Who do you blame for the culture at Sports Direct?

Unite’s Steven Turner pins the blame firmly on Mike Ashley.

It comes from the top, he says. There is “arrogance and contempt” at the top of the company.

We’ve seen it described as a workhouse, not a warehouse. Staff call it a gulag.

One of the Guardian’s undercover journalists was offered one of these cards when he gained a job in the warehouse.

Workers issued with these prepaid cards are being charged £10 per month, just for the privilege of getting paid, Turner says.

Q: So are they being paid less than the minimum wage?

Staff are signing up to a service when they get these cards, Turner explains, so it not a deduction from their gross pay. But in reality, he argues, that is what happens.

Q: How common is the prepayment debit card which Sports Direct uses to pay some staff?

Turner says he has never come across such a thing before. And he explains that they are offered to workers from overseas, who don’t have a UK bank account.

Then he explains how it works......

They are charged to get the card, plus a £10 per month management fee. Then charged 75p to use it in an ATM machine, and 10p when they get a text message confirming they’ve used it.

Turner says the company issuing the card charges a £2 per month management fee, so who is getting the £8?.....

Q: Have conditions changed at Sports Direct since last December? (when the Guardian exposed the issues at Shirebrook)?

Turner says that there have been no significant changes, although some improvements have been made.

However, the 20p per hour pay increase announced recently have addressed the minimum wage issue.

Jonathan Reynolds MP asks about allegations that workers at Shirebrook are being coerced into sexual relationships. Has anything been done about it?

Turner says not. Unite have written to the agencies, and only received a curt reply from one.

Q: What’s different about Sports Direct that attracts such criticism?

Turner says it is the company’s business model, which he fears is being exported across other industries.

Primarolo adds that effective backstops need to be put in place to prevent Sports Direct’s practices spreading.

Steven Turner says that Unite has statutory recognition at Shirebrook, but only represents around 200 workers. There’s no recognition for the thousands of agency workers.

He adds that there’s not been any agreement on pay for several years, the only discussions have related to the minimum wage issue.

Luke Primarolo says there is no statutory recognition with SPD’s retail workers.

Chairman Iain Wright asks what input Unite have had into Mike Ashley’s review of working practices.

No input, Turner replies.

The press pack locked outside the hearing are getting restless, particularly Buzzfeed’s Simon Neville:

There’s a small demonstration outside parliament against working practices at Mike Ashley’s company:

The committee are hearing from Sports Direct staff in a private session, according to The Times’s Deirdre Hipwell:

And that means reporters aren’t allowed in yet.

We should be underway shortly...

Crowds are gathering at the House of Commons, with 30 minutes until the hearing begins.

Reminder: Ashley is the headline act, at 11am, after MPs have heard from unions and recruitment firms (here’s the agenda)

My colleague Graham Ruddick points out that Mike Ashley has reinforcements at today’s hearing:

Last Friday, Ashley surprised the committee by announcing that he couldn’t attend today’s meeting as his lawyer wasn’t free. He then changed his mind on Sunday and said he would turn up, perhaps stung by Iain Wright’s suggestion that he had something to hide...

Are grim working practices a price worth paying?

That’s not a question we’d usually ask. But according to Jeremy Baker, retail analyst and affiliate professor at Europe Business School, workers at the bottom of the jobs ladder can’t expect to be treated well until they’ve “worked their way up” and proved they deserve better.

He told the Today Programme that the BIS committee must realise there is a “global labour force out there”; people willing to be exploited in return for a wage.

We can’t just shouldn’t push for “decency and middle-class values” without seeing the cost in a global economy, he declares.

Host John Humphrys gamely argues that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, as listeners tweet their disapproval:

BIS committee chairman Iain Wright isn’t impressed either, asking if we really want a Victorian world where the mill owner occasionally throws some coins down for his staff to scrabble over?

Iain Wright, chairman of the Business, Innovation and Skills committee, says he wants Mike Ashley to answer the allegations against his company.

He told Radio 4’s Today Programme that:

Essentially we want to ask Mr Ashley are working conditions getting better? Not Just at the factory warehouse Shirebrook, but at retail outlets up and down the country.

Wright is also planning to press Ashley on the allegations that staff received below the minimum wage due to the 15 minute-long searches after their shifts.

The committee are also looking into the wider issue of Britain’s labour market, in an era of job insecurity and zero hours contracts.

What is the balance between rights for the workers and rights for the boss?

The Today Programme has also spoken to some shoppers at Sports Direct’s Oxford Street.

One admitted that he’d heard staff were treated “really, really poorly”, but he still shops at Sports Direct as it is cheap. Another pointed out that customers never really know how workers at any retailer are treated behind the scenes.

In the spirit of helpfulness, we’ve pulled together the 10 questions which MPs should ask Mike Ashley today.

They include:

1. Has Ashley concluded his internal review, what were its findings and will it be made public?
   
2. What has Sports Direct done to improve working conditions?
   
3. How many teachers and community leaders did Sports Direct speak to during the review?
   
4. After the allegations emerged about warehouse workers being paid, in effect, below the national minimum wage, Sports Direct pledged £10m towards a staff pay rise. Does the company accept, therefore, that compulsory unpaid searches on staff leaving the warehouse meant they were previously receiving pay that was in effect below the minimum wage?
   
5. Is Sports Direct being investigated by HM Revenue & Customs regarding the allegations that workers have been receiving pay that is effectively below the minimum wage?
   
6. Has Sports Direct had any discussions with workers or their representatives about topping up wages with back pay?
   
7. Ashley has said: “No Sports Direct employees are engaged in the Shirebrook warehouse on a zero-hours contract, and the main agencies have confirmed to us that none of their workers are engaged on a zero-hours contract.” Can he disclose what guaranteed hours warehouse workers are entitled to?
   
8. Does Sports Direct influence the hourly rates paid to agency workers?
   
9. Sports Direct’s warehouse is operational 24 hours a day and for 365 days a year. The facility always requires a substantial number of staff, so why are the vast majority of the workers employed on temporary contracts?
   
10. Will Ashley reveal if any temporary staff have been dismissed after falling foul of a six-strikes-and-you-are-out system at Shirebrook?
    

More details here:

Mike Ashley appears to have admitted that there have been problems at the Shirebrook site, even before the hearing begins.

The Daily Telegraph are reporting that Ashley has written to his 27,000 staff, saying it has been a “difficult year” but pledging to defend Sports Direct’s “good name” today.

Apparently, the letter also shows that chief executive Dave Forsey is foregoing his four year share bonus, worth as much as £4m.

“Difficult” is arguably an understatement. Sports Direct shares tumbled in December, as our investigation was immediately followed by poor trading figures.

In January, SPD issued a profit warning, and in March shares slid again after Ashley told the Times that “We are in trouble, we are not trading very well”. The company has also been ejected from the FTSE 100, after its value fell by around 40%.