As Ted Tuppen, the Enterprise Inns chief executive, was announcing a 12.6 per cent decline in full-year profits, one of his pub tenants was giving evidence to the Parliamentary Business and Enterprise Committee inquiry into the relationship between leased pub companies — the so-called pubcos — and their tenants.

Speaking before he was due to take the stand, Paul Daly, an Enterprise licensee in East London who also owns a freehouse, said he was “shocked at how the pubcos have been able to get away with the way that they have been treating their tenants for so long”.

He added: “I cannot believe the difference in prices that I have to pay for beer in my tied pub compared to my free-of-tie pub. The price I am quoted for Carling is 61 per cent more expensive. The pubco model is simply not sustainable.”

But Mr Tuppen, who founded the company in 1991, expressed surprise at the attack, claiming that when Mr Daly had acquired the tenancy in April he had “freely entered” a contract outlining the precise terms of the beer tie.

Mr Tuppen said he was confident that the inquiry, which is reviewing how the pubcos have responded to the recommendations of the 2004 Trade and Industry Select Committee, would reaffirm the “clarity, transparency and fairness” of Enterprise’s dealings with its licensees.

He said the attitude of some MPs involved with the inquiry had created a “Robin Hood element” to the illegal practice of buying beer from other suppliers. “There’s a sense that tenants who break the tie are somehow escaping the clutches of the evil pubcos,” he said. “But buying outside the tie is stealing.”

Mr Tuppen, 56, started his career as an accountant with Peat Marwick and gained an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management. He spends his spare time, skiing, shooting, racing cars, playing golf and walking the dog.

In recent years, there have been suggestions that the father of four might be preparing to spend more time on his leisure pursuits. But last night he declared: “Most chief executives would regard it as an obligation to continue steering the ship when times are tricky.”