After almost eight years leading the largest supermarket chain in the UK, Tesco chair John Allan is set to step down from the role as inappropriate behavior allegations have surfaced against him.

This comes as the executive continues to face backlash following an investigation led by The Guardian.

The publication reported three separate claims of inappropriate remarks made by Allan to female members of Confederation of British Industry (CBI), as well as an even more serious claim that he had allegedly “touched the bottom of a member of staff at the CBI during its annual dinner in May 2019”.

Allan acted as president of the CBI between 2018 and 2020 and then as vice-president until October 2021

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So far, Allan has denied three of the four accusations made against him. He admitted to making an offensive comment to a CBI staffer in 2019 and assured he apologized immediately after the fact.

“These allegations are utterly baseless, as the internal procedures undertaken by Tesco prove. Tesco undertook an ‘extensive internal review’ which included inviting Tesco employees and ex-employees to come forward on an anonymous basis if they had concerns about my conduct,” Allan said in a statement.

Tesco announced on Friday 19 that Byron Grote, senior independent director at the company, would be acting as interim chair for at least the end of the year.