Tesco chairman John Allan denies allegations of inappropriate touching

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John Allan, the chairman of supermarket giant Tesco, has denied allegations of inappropriate touching by two women.

The prominent business leader was chairman of the crisis-ridden Confederation of British Industry (CBI) trade group until 2020, and vice-chairman for a further year.

The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday morning that Mr Allan, chairman of Tesco since 2015, allegedly touched the buttocks of a senior member of Tesco staff during the retailers’ annual general meeting (AGM) last June.

Mr Allan was also accused of allegedly touching the buttocks of a CBI staff member at its annual dinner in 2019.

He said the allegations were simply untrue.

The 74-year-old also denied the newspaper’s claims that he made inappropriate remarks on those occasions as well as similar and separate comments to female CBI workers in 2019 and 2021.

A number of allegations linked to Mr Allans’ tenure at the CBI, where he previously served as chairman and vice-chairman (Jonathan Brady/PA)

He reported that some of the women were offended by the alleged actions and viewed them as sexual harassment.

Mr Allan denied all but one of the allegations, making a comment about the appearance of a CBI staff member in 2019 which she said was offensive.

A spokesman for Mr Allan said he was mortified after making the comment and immediately apologised.

The person concerned agreed that the matter was closed and that no further action was taken, the spokesperson said.

As for the other claims, they are simply false. Even so, Mr Allan demanded that Tesco and Fox Williams, who had been instructed by the CBI to carry out an investigation following various allegations, investigate them.

Fox Williams has decided not to, and Tesco is unaware of and has not received any complaints about Mr Allan’s conduct, either at the 2022 AGM or in the eight years that he was chairman of Tesco.

A Tesco spokeswoman said: In relation to John Allans’ conduct at the 2022 Tescos AGM, Tesco has not received any formal or informal complaints or concerns, including via our confidential Protector Line service.

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At Tesco, we are committed to ensuring that all colleagues are respected and feel safe at work.

Tesco’s personnel policies apply to all colleagues, and any concerns or complaints raised about conduct are always taken very seriously and investigated thoroughly.

This is a serious allegation, and if anyone has any concerns or information, we will ask them to let us know through one of our reporting channels, including our confidential hotline, so that we can investigate.

John Allan’s conduct was never the subject of a complaint during his tenure as chairman of Tesco. We note that John strongly denies the Tescos AGM allegation.

The CBI has been contacted for comments.

The new reports come after trade body CBI was rocked by earlier allegations of widespread sexual harassment over the past two months.

Tony Danker (Jacob King/AP)

The CBI’s decline began in early March when the Guardian published accusations of misconduct against then-director-general Tony Danker.

A month later, the newspaper ran another story saying that more than a dozen women who worked for the CBI had approached him claiming they had been sexually harassed by colleagues. A woman said she had been raped.

A few days later, after outside attorneys concluded the first part of their report to the CBI, Mr. Danker was fired and Rain Newton-Smith was announced as the group’s new boss.

Mr Danker then denounced the CBI, saying he was the scapegoat and his reputation had been totally trashed.

The newspaper then published a second rape allegation and a new stalking allegation against CBI staff.

In response, dozens of the UK’s biggest companies, including Tesco, left the organisation.

The CBI decided to suspend all political and membership activities in response.

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