Tesco chairman and ex-CBI boss John Allan is accused of inappropriate behaviour by four women as he denies claims of sexual harassment
- READ MORE: Now scandal-hit CBI reports new criminal allegations to police
The chairman of Tesco has been accused of sexual harassment, including touching two women’s bottoms.
John Allan allegedly touched a Tesco employee at the supermarket giant’s annual general meeting last year.
The 74-year-old is also accused of ‘grabbing’ a woman at the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) annual dinner in May 2019 when he was its president.
Today, Mr Allan vehemently denied the claims in the Guardian, calling them ‘simply untrue’, while Tesco said it had not received any complaints.
The businessman was CBI president from 2018 and 2020, and then served as vice president until 2021.
John Allan allegedly touched a Tesco employee at the supermarket giant’s annual general meeting last year
The lobby group is currently embroiled in a major sexual misconduct scandal.
In addition to the claims about touching two women’s bottoms, Mr Allan is also accused of making inappropriate remarks to two CBI staff in 2019 and 2021, the Guardian reported.
He denied all but one of the claims in the article, which concerned his comments on a CBI worker’s appearance in 2019.
A spokesman for Mr Allan said: ‘Mr Allan was mortified after making the comment in 2019 and he immediately apologised.
‘The person concerned agreed the matter was closed and no further action was taken. Regarding the other claims, they are simply untrue.’
A spokesman for Tesco said: ‘In relation to John Allan’s conduct at Tesco’s 2022 AGM, Tesco has received no complaints or concerns formally or informally, including through our confidential Protector Line service.
‘At Tesco, we are committed to ensuring all colleagues are respected and feel safe at work. Tesco’s people policies apply to all colleagues, and all 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 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 74-year-old is also accused of ‘grabbing’ a woman at the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) annual dinner in May 2019 when he was its president. He’s pictured with former PM Boris Johnson at a CBI conference that same year
The supermarket said that Mr Allan’s conduct ‘has never been the subject of a complaint during his tenure as chair of Tesco’.
It comes weeks after Tesco joined other major firms in leaving the CBI in the wake of allegations of rape and harassment at its events.
The group, which claims to represent 190,000 businesses and met regularly with Government ministers, has been rocked by recent scandals including two alleged rapes and claims of harassment, drug use and misconduct, which have all been passed to police.
It said it wanted to focus urgently on ‘cultural reform’ and to ‘address our failings’.
City insiders questioned if it could survive as major firms publicly distanced themselves from the previously influential group, including many of Britain’s best known companies.
A spokesman for Tesco said: ‘In relation to John Allan’s conduct at Tesco’s 2022 AGM, Tesco has received no complaints or concerns formally or informally’
In addition to Tesco, car firms Ford, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover all quit, along with John Lewis, Mastercard and Virgin Media O2, accountancy firm EY, several major insurers and Energy UK, which represents some of Britain’s biggest energy firms.
Other major employers including Asda, the BBC, BT, Lloyds Banking Group, Unilever, M&S, ITV, AstraZeneca, GSK, Meta, National Grid, Rolls-Royce, Shell and Unilever suspended or paused their activity with the group.
Several firms issued statements which spoke of the serious and troubling nature of the rape and sexual misconduct allegations, but also criticised the CBI’s own handling of the crisis.
Mr Allan has been chair of Barratt Developments, since 2014, in addition to his role at Tesco.
He has also been a non-executive director of Royal Mail and National Grid.
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