I have had many constituents get in touch with me over the past week about the threat of extending Sunday trading hours.

Shop worker across East Hull and the country have worked extremely hard to provide food and supplies to keep the country going during the outbreak of COVID-19.

In a largely 24/7 society, having one day of the week where shops close an earlier is a good thing for the workers and longer hours on a Sunday means people would miss time with family and friends.

It’s not just the frontline staff this decision would affect. Longer opening by larger stores will mean staff in distribution, transport, manufacturing, cleaning and security and the wider community will also have to work more at weekends, slowly eroding hard fought workers’ rights.

Currently according to May 2020 polling it shows 58% of the public support the existing Sunday trading hours.
Every time extending Sunday trading hours has been debated, it has been shown that there’s no real economic argument for doing it.

We owe supermarket workers a huge debt. They have gone above and beyond to keep our country going during this crisis. The government cannot repay them by forcing them to work longer hours.