A group of Labour MPs are to write to the prime minister to demand a cross-departmental investigation into the retailer Sports Direct, following revelations made by the Guardian last week.

The latest effort to increase the pressure on the retailer came as the Institute of Directors weighed into the debate over working practices there. Iain Wright MP, chair of the business, innovation and skills select committee, said he would be writing to the group’s billionaire founder, Mike Ashley, to discuss last week’s reports.

The new moves follow a Guardian investigation that revealed that thousands of Sports Direct workers were effectively receiving hourly rates of pay below the minimum wage.

Undercover reporters found that the retailer’s warehouse workers were subjected to an extraordinary regime of searches and surveillance, while local primary school teachers said pupils can remain in school while ill – and return home to empty houses – as parents working at Sports Direct are too frightened to take time off work. The reports have led to calls from both ends of the political spectrum for HM Revenue and Customs to investigate whether Sports Direct has breached national minimum wage legislation.

On Monday, Nick Boles, a minister of state at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), was summoned to parliament to answer an urgent question on the topic filed by former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna. At a parliamentary meeting of MPs affiliated with the union Unite on Wednesday, attended by shadow ministers Emily Thornberry and Gloria de Piero, the group pledged to “go above the likes of Nick Boles”.

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The Guardian