Why Boris Johnson must envy Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley

Despite a series of provocation, a thumping majority of independent shareholders in Sports Direct voted in favour of his re-election to the board as CEO. It's like rebel Tory Dominic Grieve giving Johnson a free pass

Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley won the backing of a majority of his independent shareholders at the firm's AGM (Getty)

If Boris Johnson were to have cast an eye over what happened to Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley at the company’s AGM he’d be positively green with envy.

Despite repeated provocations, a large majority of the firm’s independent shareholders voted to re-elect Ashley to the board as CEO.

In one respect the vote was an academic exercise. Ashley has something Johnson lacks: a comfortable majority. He holds more than 60 per cent of the shares.

But the vote still mattered. It gave the company’s independent shareholders a means by which they could offer up a verdict on the quixotic way Ashley has been running the company.

This year we’ve had delayed results. The company is currently without an auditor and the big four accountants are showing a marked reluctance to tender for the work.

It’s been gobbling up the high street with wild abandon, but this has led to some serous problems, notably in the case of House of Fraser, the acquisition of which kicked the company in the financial guts. The Belgians, meanwhile, say they’re owed more than £600m in taxes. The media was barred from the meeting.

Voting advisors have recommended shareholders oppose his reappointment citing multiple governance issues. The shares have been dogs.

I could go on.

And yet despite all this a thumping majority of independent investors effectively said, you carry on Mike. We’re ok with this.

It’s like rebel Tory Dominic Grieve saying to Johnson something like, you know what, forget all that stuff I made a fuss about. You’ve got my vote from here on out regardless of what you do.

The investment community’s defenders would point to victories they have secured in the past. The much criticised former Sports Direct chairman Keith Hellawell ultimately resigned despite enjoying the support of Ashley. A past share option scheme for him and other executives was withdrawn.

And yet these represent little more than leaves on the track. The Ashley train just keeps on running.

The blasé response of a majority of investors towards what’s been going on at the company once again suggests that they are incapable of acting in their own interests, let alone those of other stakeholders, when it comes to the way companies are governed.

Absentee landlords? They’re asleep at the wheel of a Porsche doing more than 100mph on one of those speed limit free German autobahns.

The City likes to pat itself on the back over the British model of corporate governance and so does the government when it pays attention to something other than its mad Brexit plans.

Such self congratulation is completely out of place.