It’s important that Tesco’s chair has backed a windfall tax – just look at Centrica’s profit targets

John Allan’s intervention came on the same day Centrica issued its latest trading update. The company is flying and appears to be trying to hold the line on a tax proposal that is both popular and looking increasingly like an inevitability, writes James Moore

The Tesco chair, John Allan (Getty)

Tesco chair John Allan is about as far from a radical as it is possible to get.

In addition to sitting in the big seat at UK’s biggest supermarket, he chairs housebuilder Barratt and Imperial College’s council. He’s sat on so many boards during his distinguished career he’s probably got a special vanity box back home to hold all the corporate tie pins he’s picked up. All that and a recent stint as president of the Confederation of British Industry to boot.

When a pillar of the business establishment like this calls for a windfall tax on energy companies – Allan said there was “an overwhelming case” for it in a BBC interview – it grabs the attention. (He also took a shot at the chancellor, Rishi Sunak’s national insurance rise: “I wouldn’t have done it”. Oof.