Multi-millionaire technology tycoon Lawrence Jones, the boss of UKFast, has vehemently denied a newspaper's claims of sexual misconduct and bullying of staff.

The 51-year-old, who has a track record of philanthropy, has spoken out after a story was published in the FT in which former employees accused him of unwanted sexual advances and sexual assault - claims he denies.

In a statement, Mr Jones said: "The Financial Times' claims of unlawful behaviour are wholly untrue. I have not been provided with any proper details of any of these allegations.

"These are false claims by anonymous individuals which are completely at odds with the workplace culture which I have always promoted.

"The allegations are hurtful and damaging, and particularly upsetting for my wife, our family and the UKFast team. We have dedicated 20 years of our lives to UKFast and we are hugely proud of how amazing the business that we have built together is.

"We take great pride in the fact that our team have over the past 10 years been responsible for UKFast featuring regularly in the Sunday Times' 'Best Companies To Work For' list and similarly in the 'Great Place to Work' list."

His company employees 400 people and the office - at the end of Princess Parkway in Manchester - has a giant slide on the outside of the building from the top floor to the entrance and there is a gym, giant chess board and beers served at a bar on Friday nights.

The company had £50m turnover last year with profits of more than £7m. It provides cloud hosting solutions to more than 5,000 small and medium enterprises.

Employees enjoy perks such as private medical insurance, and trips to the Jones' ski chalet in Verbier and Castell Cidwm Lakehouse in north Wales, for team-bonding weekends.

Mr Jones is one of the north west's best-known businessmen. He is a father of four daughters and has been awarded an MBE by the Queen for services to the digital economy in 2015 and Princess Anne visited his office last year.

He established the cloud technology firm in his spare bedroom more than two decades ago.

The Jones's host an annual summer festival for employees in the grounds of their home, known as UKFest. His podcast, #MindYourOwnBusiness, is regularly in the top 10 on iTunes.

He is a mentor of young people, including professional athletes, musicians and entrepreneurs and his blog is read by 250,000 people every month.

The couple attended the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle last year. Just last month, he was pictured with Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

But his company faced criticism in November 2017 after an awards night, sponsored by UKFast, was branded 'sexist' as it featured showgirls in hotpants. Afterwards, Mr Jones pledged £50,000 to promote gender equality and diversity in response.

Guests complained after the Digital Entrepreneur Awards featured 'showgirls' and female winners were subjected to 'tired, arguably sexist jokes' as they collected their awards.

Mr Jones wrote on his blog at the time: "I could remove our support for the awards that we have backed for 13 years consecutively but I know the all female team who run the awards - all young, enthusiastic and passionate about helping others - would be even more devastated that they are right now.

"And I am sure it's not the intention of people to crush them for making a genuine mistake, especially after they have apologised. Women don't deliberately damage other women and themselves in the process."

He said he and his wife, Gail, who is co-founder and joint managing director of the group, had decided to establish a £50,000 fund to "help carry on and widen the conversation of gender equality and diversity".

Last year he was appointed an ambassador to the High Sheriff of Greater Manchester. He has also established the UKFast Community and Education Trust, which aims to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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