Rules on Sunday opening hours for shops in England and Wales are out of date and need to be relaxed, a group of 200 MPs and council leaders has said.
In a letter to the Sunday Telegraph, they wrote that increasing spending on Sundays would boost job prospects and help shops compete with online firms. They backed government plans to devolve Sunday trading laws to local councils.
However, the shopworkers’ union said the majority of its members opposed extended Sunday trading hours.
In the letter, the group – which includes the cross-party British Infrastructure Group (BIG) of MPs – said the world had changed “a great deal” since Sunday trading laws were last updated in 1994.
“Yet whilst times and attitudes have changed, Sunday Trading laws have stayed the same,” they wrote.
“Our high streets and physical retailers have been left trying to compete with 24/7 online shopping, a task which is made harder by a shortened trading day at the weekend, just when many families might hope to go shopping together.”