A war of words has erupted between John Allan, the Tesco chair, and a law firm instructed by the CBI in the latest embarrassment to hit the scandal-hit lobby group.
Fox Williams disputed on Tuesday Allan’s assertion that it had chosen not to investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct made against Allan, a former CBI president, which were reported by The Guardian newspaper. Allan in turn challenged the law firm’s version of events, calling it “incorrect”.
Allan has denied three separate allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women, saying they are “simply untrue”.
He told The Guardian that he had requested law firm Fox Williams to investigate the allegations but the firm had “decided not to”.
The CBI had previously instructed Fox Williams to investigate allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and other workplace misconduct after more than a dozen women made complaints about a toxic culture at the organisation.
However, Fox Williams denied Allan’s version of events. “It is not correct that Fox Williams decided not to investigate the allegations made against Mr Allan by The Guardian,” the firm said in a statement.
The law firm said that the scope of its probe at the CBI had been limited to whether or not senior managers knew of workplace misconduct claims before they appeared in the press, and by an ongoing police investigation into two rape allegations at the CBI.
The CBI said in a statement that the scope of the probe by Fox Williams had been constrained by the police investigation.
The law firm added that Allan had declined to provide further information to the CBI. “Mr Allan was provided with the opportunity to give an account to the CBI via Fox Williams which, as far as we are aware, he has chosen not to do,” it said.
On Tuesday evening, however, a spokesperson for Allan said that his lawyers had confirmed on April 4 that he wished for Fox Williams to investigate the allegations against him, and followed up on April 21, but the law firm chose not to meet him.
“Instead, on April 23 2023, Fox Williams offered to forward a statement from Mr Allan to the CBI although confirmed that their investigation had already concluded,” they added.
Fox Williams confirmed that Allan’s lawyers contacted it but that the firm was “not permitted to speak to all individuals involved in the allegations made by The Guardian. Mr Allan was made aware of this.”
Allan served as president and vice-president of the CBI from June 2018 to October 2021.
The three allegations denied by Allan include two separate alleged incidents of touching a woman’s bottom, at a CBI dinner in May 2019 and during Tesco’s annual shareholder meeting in June last year. Allan has also denied a claim that in 2021 he made comments about a woman’s bottom.
A fourth allegation in which Allan admitted to telling a female CBI employee that her dress “suited her figure” in November 2019 was resolved to the satisfaction of both sides. Allan has previously said that he had been “mortified” by the comment and “immediately apologised”.
Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, said the 74-year-old had never been the subject of a complaint since becoming chair in 2015, and that it did not receive complaints or concerns about his conduct at the annual meeting in June 2022.
Tesco said that it took all concerns or complaints about conduct “very seriously” and investigated them thoroughly.
Referring to the claim about the shareholder meeting, Tesco said: “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.”