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 Allen touched a Tesco employee at the supermarket giant's shareholder meeting last year.

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

Mr Allen 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 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."

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

Mr Allan was president of 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.

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.

Mr Allan is also chairman of Barratt Developments, the housebuilder.

In response to the Guardian's allegations, it said: "We have 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."