Sports Direct claimed key-worker status to stay open in lockdown — reversed within a day

On the night of March 23, 2020, shortly after Boris Johnson announced tighter UK restrictions ordering all 'non-essential shops' to close, Frasers Group told staff that Sports Direct and Evans Cycles stores would remain open 'where possible'. Chief finance officer Chris Wootton's message argued that since Sports Direct sold fitness equipment, it was 'uniquely well placed to help keep the UK as fit and healthy as possible' and its staff should be considered key workers.

The backlash was immediate, from customers and staff alike. Campaigner George Monbiot wrote that by refusing to close its shops, Sports Direct had 'declared that money is more important than life'. Later the same evening, Wootton sought 'to clarify', saying in another message that the group's stores would remain closed 'until we are given the go-ahead by the government'.

By Tuesday morning, cabinet office minister Michael Gove confirmed to the BBC that the company had asked the government whether its shops should keep operating. 'We made it clear that was wrong. The management of that store has got the message,' he said. Sports Direct announced all its stores would remain closed.

It reclassified itself as essential on the strength of selling fitness equipment, a claim customers and staff rejected outright.

Staff were put in the position of working storefronts during a pandemic under a policy withdrawn within hours.

The government had to publicly correct the company — the opposite of the cover the 'key worker' argument was meant to provide.

A crisis is the wrong moment to lawyer the definition of 'essential': audiences judge the attempt, not the argument, and the climbdown outlives the plan.

The reversal held: all Sports Direct stores stayed closed under the lockdown order, and the company had been publicly corrected by a cabinet office minister on the BBC within a day of the original instruction to staff.