Tesco chairman denies inappropriate touching

Tesco's chairman has strongly denied claims that he touched women's bottoms on two separate occasions.

A report in the Guardian newspaper alleges that John Allan touched a Tesco employee at the supermarket giant's shareholder meeting last year.

It also claims Mr Allan, who is the former president of the CBI, "grabbed" a woman at one of its events in 2019.

Mr Allan said that the claims are "simply untrue" and Tesco said it has not received any complaints.

The supermarket giant - which Mr Allan has chaired for eight years - told the BBC that in relation to his conduct at Tesco's annual general meeting last year "it has received no complaints or concerns formally or informally, including through our confidential Protector Line service".

It said it noted that Mr Allan strongly denies the allegation and his conduct has "never been the subject of a complaint during his tenure as chair of Tesco".

Tesco added: "This is a serious allegation, and if anyone has any concerns or information, we would ask them to share those with us through any of our reporting channels including through our confidential Protector Line, so we can investigate."

The Guardian also claims that Mr Allan commented on a CBI employee's dress and bottom in 2021 - an incident that he said he does not recall.

He does, however, admit to making a comment to a female CBI worker in late 2019 about a dress suiting her figure.

Mr Allan said he was "mortified after making the comment in 2019" and immediately apologised. A spokesperson for Mr Allan said: "The person concerned agreed the matter was closed and no further action was taken."

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The spokesperson added: "Regarding the other claims, they are simply untrue."

Mr Allan was president of the business lobby group the CBI between 2018 and 2020, then spent just over a year as vice president.

The allegations have emerged as the CBI fights for survival following claims of sexual misconduct at the lobby group, including two allegations of rape. The City of London police is investigating the allegations.

Fox Williams, a law firm, conducted an investigation into the claims and the CBI admitted that it had hired "culturally toxic" staff and failed to fire people who sexually harassed female colleagues.

It has since fired a number of people.

A spokesperson for Mr Allan said that he requested that Fox Williams investigate the claims against him and that the law firm decided not to.

However, a spokesperson for Fox Williams said this was incorrect.

It said that once the City of London police opened inquiries into alleged sexual misconduct at the CBI "we were not permitted to speak to all individuals involved in the allegations".

The scope of Fox Williams' investigation was therefore limited to whether the leadership of the CBI was aware of claims of misconduct, what steps it took or failed to take to address them and what lessons could be learnt.

Following the conclusion of Fox Williams' investigation, a spokesman for the law firm said: "Mr Allan was provided with the opportunity to give an account to the CBI which, as far as we are aware, he has chosen not to do."

In response, a spokesman for Mr Allan said that on 4 April his lawyers told Fox Williams he wanted it to investigate the allegation against him.

He said Fox Williams was contacted again on 21 April by Mr Allan's lawyers to explain he was available for interview.

"Fox Williams chose not to meet him," the spokesman said. "Instead, on 23 April, Fox Williams offered to forward a statement from Mr Allan to the CBI although confirmed that their investigation had already concluded."

'Secure whistleblowing policies'

Commenting on the allegations against John Allan in the Guardian, a CBI spokesperson said: "Where an individual is identified as being a victim, witness or perpetrator of a potential criminal offence, with the agreement of the City of London Police, they would be referred to the City of London Police to continue the investigation."

It added that Fox Williams "did not investigate the matter themselves".

Mr Allan is also chairman of Barratt Developments, the housebuilder. The company said it had "clear and secure whistleblowing policies in place and have never been made aware of any concerns or allegations in relation to John Allan during his time at Barratt".

A large number of companies have either quit the CBI or suspended their membership following separate allegations of misconduct and rape against employees at the lobby which emerged in April.

Tesco paused its membership, stating: "We are deeply concerned by these very serious allegations and we have paused our membership of the CBI with immediate effect."

During his time as chairman of Tesco, Mr Allan drew criticism when in 2017 he suggested that white men were becoming "endangered species" on company boards.

He said: "If you are a white male - tough - you are an endangered species and you are going to have to work twice as hard."

He later said that his comments were meant to be "humorous".