ENVIRONMENT Minister Freddie Cohen may have inadvertently dropped a hint that UK supermarket giant Tesco is seriously interested in opening a store in Jersey when he told a press conference today that he had no financial interests in the company.

Senator Cohen wanted to make the point that he had no financial interest in Tesco, which was founded by a Cohen family, when he spoke at a Council of Ministers press conference on future retail strategy this morning.

He said: ‘For the record, I have no interests in Tesco.’ Asked if he had any shares in the public company, he replied: ‘No.’ Meanwhile, Chief Minister Frank Walker said he would be ‘surprised and disappointed’ if the identity of a new supermarket operator was not announced within a year and he would also expect the site for a new store to be made public knowledge.

The Council of Ministers yesterday agreed a new retail industry policy, part of which was a pledge that 90% of any new jobs could be filled only by people who had lived in Jersey for at least five years.