Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman clashes with Tesco over ‘terribly dodgy’ letter

Mar 8 2010 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

The letter, which is dated February 8, then provides contact details for the charity.

Mr Sheerman told the Examiner last year that he had asked all the major supermarket companies to support Greenstreams.

But he said yesterday morning that it was wrong for Ms Duncan to talk about the charity and the development in the same letter.

He said: “If it’s not corrupt, it’s embarrassingly indelicate. It’s in really bad taste.

“A lot of local businesses have contributed to Greenstreams, but not in this crass way.”

Yesterday afternoon Mr Sheerman contacted the Examiner to say that Tesco had apologised. He said: "What they did was inappropriate and I’m glad they apologised."

A Tesco spokesman said: "We met with Barry Sheerman after he wrote to us looking for funding for the Greenstreams project. Such requests are not unusual and we direct them to the Tesco Charity Trust which is run by a board of independent trustees and has been supporting communities for over 20 years. All we have done is respond to Mr. Sheerman's letter, and our subsequent meeting looking for funding, by directing him to this Charity Trust.

"We have not apologised to Mr Sheerman, nor do we have anything to apologise for. Our actions were entirely appropriate at all times and to suggest otherwise is a serious allegation which we completely refute."