MIKE ASHLEY has taken the unusual step of sending a strongly worded letter to MPs defending his record as the owner of Newcastle United.

The Magpies owner is currently under more pressure from fans for not ensuring the summer transfer window has gone as smoothly as Rafa Benitez wanted.

Benitez, who made Salomon Rondon his sixth signing of the summer on Monday, is now desperately wanting defensive reinforcements to arrive before Thursday’s 5pm deadline.

Paris St Germain’s £9m-rated Stanley N’Soki and Ajax’s £8m valued Nicolas Tagliafico are the two main targets.

But Newcastle are unlikely to pay out that sort of money on both unless there are more departures from St James’ Park in the next couple of days.

The need to strengthen at the back has grown because of the cruciate ligament injury suffered by Florian Lejeune, while there is a lack of full-back cover.

There is interest in Toulouse’s Christopher Julien but he is not believed to be at the top of Benitez’s shopping list at this stage.

Similarly Newcastle – who have been in touch with Liverpool about Danny Ings - are keen on Real Sociedad forward William Jose, who scored 20 goals in 40 appearances last season. Other clubs are keen too, but Newcastle think the defensive area is the most important at this stage.

Benitez has at least landed leading attacking target Rondon before the season opener with Tottenham, and he will compete with Yoshinori Muto and Joselu for the striker role following Dwight Gayle’s exit to West Brom.

Despite getting six deals done, Ashley has not splashed the cash this summer and there has been a drive to ensure money spent by Benitez is raised first.

Benitez has been looking for more money to be spent and for investment in the club’s facilities, so that he could try to build on last season’s tenth place finish in the Premier League.

The situation has frustrated the Spaniard while supporters have taken his side and they have been critical of Ashley – just like they have for the majority of his ten years at St James’.

Now Ashley has sent the angry 529-word letter to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to defend his time at the club. It was in response to Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah’s parliamentary petition last month, which stated that the owner should provide greater support to manager Benitez via “investment in players, training facilities and community engagement”.

It is understood the main motivation of the letter is not to repaint his image to the fans, but to try to curb what he terms the “unprecedented” levels of abuse, intimidation and harassment he alleges staff have suffered and to highlight the club’s record in the community.

The sportswear tycoon went on to claim the petition presents a “wholly inaccurate assessment of the situation at Newcastle United” and is both “irresponsible and misleading”.

Ashley feels members of staff at the club, including those of the club’s Foundation, has been ignored by Onwurah.

ASHLEY'S letter, dated August 3, was sent via both post and email and is in full below ...

Mike Ashley’s letter to Jeremy Wright MP:

Dear Mr Wright,

Re: Petition - Football Club Ownership/Chi Onwurah MP

I am writing to you in relation to the above petition, which was presented to Parliament on July 24, 2018 by Chi Onwurah, Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central. A copy of the petition can be found in Hansard via the link contained in the footnote below.

The petition presents a wholly inaccurate assessment of the situation at Newcastle United. I was therefore disappointed that, to the best of my knowledge, Ms Onwurah made no attempt, in advance of presenting the petition, to contact or engage with me, or anybody at Newcastle United.

As owner of Newcastle United, I have provided the club with interest-free loans, the outstanding balance of which as at today’s date is £144m, whilst I also cleared all of its third-party debts, which stood at £76m in 2006/07 and incurred finance costs of £6.5m that existed when I purchased the club.

This enabled Newcastle United to establish an affordable ticket-pricing policy for fans. This includes a number of season-ticket prize-freeze schemes, which allows over 20,000 supporters to secure their ticket at a significantly-reduced rate every season.

We operate numerous community-engagement programmes through our Foundation, who met with your predecessor Matt Hancock MP earlier this summer to discuss our work. I enclose below a link to the Foundation’s most-recent annual report for your information. Having attended Foundation Events on many occasions over the past few years, Ms Onwurah should be well placed to have a detailed understanding of the extensive good work our Foundation does within the community.

Our training facilities have improved significantly during my tenure. They are fit for purpose and very clearly do not have a negative impact on performance, given we secured a place within the top ten of the Premier League last season.

Furthermore, my continued financial support, the huge contribution of the world-class manager we retained, together with the fantastic efforts of our players and staff, enabled the club to swiftly recover from relegation in 2017. This contrasts starkly with the experiences of clubs such as Aston Villa and Sunderland, and, less recently, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest.

In my opinion, the Parliamentary petition is an irresponsible and misleading attempt by a small number of MPs to create a media circus by portraying me as a pantomime villain. Following publication of the petition, an unprecedented volume of unacceptable abuse was directed towards staff at Sports Direct and its associated companies, via social media, email and telephone.

“This included digital material of an obscene nature, incitement to commit criminal damage, and language that was clearly intended to intimidate and harass staff. We are in the process of bringing examples of this behaviour to the attention of police.

I would therefore be grateful if you could take into account all of the above factors whilst considering any response that the Government may wish to make to the petition. I would be happy to provide written answers to any questions that you may have, not only about football ownership, but also about the manner in which the petition was presented and its subsequent repercussions.

Best wishes,

Mike Ashley, owner - Newcastle United