Tesco chairman denies inappropriate touching

Tesco's president has powerfully denied claims that helium touched women's bottoms connected 2 abstracted occasions.

A study successful the Guardian paper alleges that John Allen touched a Tesco worker astatine the supermarket giant's shareholder gathering past year.

It besides claims Mr Allen, who is the erstwhile president of the CBI, "grabbed" a pistillate astatine 1 of its events successful 2019.

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

The supermarket elephantine - which Mr Allan has chaired for 8 years - told the BBC that successful narration to his behaviour astatine Tesco yearly wide gathering past twelvemonth "it has received nary complaints oregon concerns formally oregon informally, including done our confidential Protector Line service".

It said it noted that Mr Allan powerfully denies the allegation and his behaviour has "never been the taxable of a ailment during his tenure arsenic seat of Tesco".

Tesco added: "This is simply a superior allegation, and if anyone has immoderate concerns oregon information, we would inquire them to stock those with america done immoderate of our reporting channels including done our confidential Protector Line, truthful we tin investigate."

The Guardian besides claims that Mr Allan commented connected a CBI employee's formal and bottommost successful 2021 - an incidental that helium said helium does not recall.

He does, however, admit to making a remark to a pistillate CBI idiosyncratic successful precocious 2019 astir a formal suiting her figure.

Mr Allan said helium was "mortified aft making the remark successful 2019" and instantly apologised. A spokesperson for Mr Allan said: "The idiosyncratic acrophobic agreed the substance was closed and nary further enactment was taken."

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

Mr Allan was president of the CBI betwixt 2018 and 2020, past spent conscionable implicit a twelvemonth arsenic vice president.

The allegations person emerged arsenic the CBI fights for endurance pursuing claims of intersexual misconduct astatine the lobby group, including 2 allegations of rape.

Fox Williams, a instrumentality firm, conducted an probe into the claims and the CBI admitted that it had hired "culturally toxic" unit and failed to occurrence radical who sexually harassed pistillate colleagues.

It has since fired a fig of people.

A spokesperson for Mr Allan said that helium requested that Fox Williams analyse the claims against him and that the instrumentality steadfast decided not to.

Mr Allan is besides president of Barratt Developments, the housebuilder.

In effect to the Guardian's allegations, it said: "We person wide and unafraid whistleblowing policies successful spot and person ne'er been made alert of immoderate concerns oregon allegations successful narration to John Allan during his clip astatine Barratt."

A ample fig of companies person either discontinue the CBI oregon suspended their rank pursuing abstracted allegations of misconduct and rape against employees astatine the lobby which emerged successful April.

Tesco paused its membership, stating: "We are profoundly acrophobic by these precise superior allegations and we person paused our rank of the CBI with contiguous effect."