Minister calls for Tesco boycott over support for Pride London
Another Christian leader has criticised the supermarket giant Tesco for sponsoring next year’s Pride London event.
According to the North Star newspaper, Rev Andrew Allan, of the Free Church of Scotland, has described it as supporting “perversion”.
Allan was commenting on incorrect claims that Tesco’s involvement with the gay pride festival came at the expense of its support for Cancer Research’s annual Race for Life competition.
The allegations were made in the Daily Mail on 11 November.
The paper reported that David Skinner of the Anglican Mainstream organisation had urged Christians to boycott the retailer and said:
“For Tesco to sponsor a tiny homosexual minority – according to the Office for National Statistics, that amounts to little more than 1 per cent of the population [is] showing the utmost contempt for a large proportion of British society, that still adheres, more or less, to the morality and values of the Ten Commandments”.
In response, Paul Birrell, Chair of Pride London, wrote on the organisation’s Facebook page:
“You may have seen an article in the Daily Mail suggesting that one of our sponsors, Tesco, have decided to end their partnership with Race4Life in order to work with us.
“This suggestion is not correct. Tesco have supported us in a variety of ways for a number of years whilst also supporting Race4Life.”
Meanwhile, a Tesco spokesman said: “We are very proud of the work that we have done with Cancer Research UK and Race for Life.
“Since 2002 over half of our staff have been involved with the charity, raising over £7m.
“Although we jointly agreed with Cancer Research UK that we would not repeat the title sponsorship we had last year, we will continue to support Race for Life in the years to come through the thousands of staff that enter the event each year paid for by Tesco.
“It is not a case of favouring one community cause over another.
“The £30,000 we are giving to Pride London was an entirely separate decision.
“We support a great many charities and good causes and will continue to do so”.
