Retailers clash on Sunday Shopping

Some of the UK's largest retailers are posed to renew their fight for Sunday deregulation amid signs the government is cooling on its plans to allow big stores to open longer on Sundays. Deregulate, the campaign body backed by Asda, Next, Kingfisher and Ikea has appointed Good Relations, the lobbyists, to orchestrate a new offensive. The move comes as opposition for longer opening hours grows. The government, while formally agnostic on the issue, had been in favour of extended the limit on Sunday hours from six to nine hours. But the mood in Whitehall has since changed. Alistair Darling, the trade and industry secretary is expected to announce before the parliamentary recess starts next month whether the government will abandon plans to relax the law.

While no final decision has been taken, one Whitehall official conceded that the issue was now "not as clear cut as people originally thought." Deregulate suffered a body blow in May when Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, abruptly withdrew its membership from the campaign, citing customer opposition to full deregulation. Meanwhile, the pro-deregulation camp is being hampered by the unexpected strength of parliamentary opposition to the move. A motion opposing any extension of Sunday trading hours has been signed by 287 MPs, including 177 Labour MPs.

This raises a potentially significant hurdle, given any change to the hours would have to be agreed by parliament and the government would be under pressure to allow a free vote, as it did when Sunday trading was first voted on in 1994. An independent report released this year found that the economy would benefit by £1.4bn a year if larger retailers were open for longer on Sundays, according to the Financial Times.