Iceland boss retracts HIV needle staff attack claim

The boss of Iceland has been forced to apologise and retract a claim that three staff contracted HIV as a result of needle attacks.

Richard Walker said he had made the comments "in error" in a draft article about threats of violence against store workers by shoplifters for Mail Online.

Politicians and charities had called for him to withdraw the claims, stating that such comments set back "work to dispel myths around HIV".

Mr Walker said he had "learnt a lot".

Contracting HIV from a needle injury is extremely rare.

Charities said there have been no recorded cases of HIV through needle attacks, and the most recent case of HIV being transmitted through a needle stick injury was in 1999. This is because the virus does not survive long outside of the body.

Following Mr Walker's comments on 15 September, the all-party parliamentary group on HIV and Aids, which is chaired by MPs and charities, wrote a letter accusing him of stoking HIV stigma and called for the Iceland boss to apologise.

"Claims that there have been three instances of HIV transmissions through needle attacks in your shops must be false," the letter said.

Some 10 days since his remarks were published, Mr Walker released an apology on X, formerly known as Twitter, late on Monday, stating that he "never had any intention of stigmatising people with HIV or causing distress".

"The claim in the draft article that three of our store colleagues are HIV positive as a result of needle attacks was made in error," he said.

"I am told such needlestick occurrences are vanishingly rare and have not happened for many years. I am therefore naturally very sorry that the draft article contained this information."

He added that Iceland "immediately asked the Mail Online to amend its article". The article still appears online but the claims around HIV have been removed.

Mr Walker said in his statement that staff did experience threats of violence by shoplifters on a daily basis, adding "the weapons deployed to reinforce these threats regularly include knives, screwdrivers, hammers and hypodermic needles".

The cross-party group of MPs welcomed the apology but said it was late and "the original falsehoods that were reported just fuels HIV stigma and would have done more damage than good".

Kat Smithson, director of communications and engagement at National AIDS Trust said statements like the one made by Mr Walker added to "the fear and misrepresent the reality of HIV and how it is transmitted".

"Richard isn't alone in believing these things to be true, but it's hugely welcome to see him listen, learn, apologise and crucially to set the record straight," she said.

Richard Angell, chief executive at Terrence Higgins Trust, welcomed Mr Walker's apology.

"The way in which HIV is discussed in the media has a huge impact on public perceptions and fuels attitudes towards the virus that are rooted in the 1980s - that's why our charity will always call it out," he added.

Both charities called for Iceland to work with them to educate staff on HIV and to reduce the stigma around it.