Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa faces being found in contempt of parliament after claims that he provided “misleading” information to the Business and Trade Committee.
According to The Telegraph, chair of the Committee Liam Byrne said he was “taken aback” to have read of the reported innaccuracies in the Evening Standard last month.
However, a spokesperson for Asda said the information has been submitted in “error”, adding that “all group companies are UK registered and pay tax in the UK in accordance with UK tax legislation”.
On 13 November, Byrne issued a letter to Issa stating: “I am disappointed to have to point out to you that submitting inaccurate information to a select committee is tantamount to misleading the House of Commons and this is prima facie a contempt of Parliament, which is a very serious matter.
“I should add that any contempt of Parliament is significantly compounded by the fact that you have seen fit not to inform the committee itself of the errors in your letter – leaving us to find out about this matter from a newspaper report.”
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Byrne has also asked Issa to provide further transparency on Asda’s ownership structure before the end of November following concerns over its complexity.
The Asda spokesperson told the newspaper that it has received the Committee’s letter and is “responding to them”.
This is the latest update in a chain of MP grillings of the Asda co-owners.
Last month, the Issa brothers denied taking money out of the grocer as they defended its complex ownership structure to MPs.
They refuted suggestions that they had taken dividends out of the business following their £6.8bn Asda acquisition in 2021.
The denial forms part of the Issas response to the Committee following a hearing in July when Mohsin Issa repeatedly declined to answer MPs questions over whether Asda had upped its fuel margin target, as he insisted that the supermarket’s pricing strategy “has not changed” since 2021.
MPs described the session as “drawing teeth” as they accused Issa of failing to answer questions on not just fuel, but the supermarket’s financing and its treatment of staff.
