Safeway and Sainsbury's have called on the government to increase Sunday trading hours from its current six hours limit.

The move follows last year's Christmas disruption when December 23 fell on a Sunday. Tesco, Asda and Waitrose, have all said that they had little interest in longer Sunday hours.

Forum Response: Usdaw - Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers

A spokesman for Usdaw told ePolitix.com: "We are directly opposed to any increase to the Sunday trading hours. We feel an extension of working hours would probably involve some element of forcing people to work on a Sunday because these firms would find it difficult getting sufficient people to staff their stores.

"The six-hour limit had been a compromise between those for and against Sunday opening. Give the retail industry an inch and they try to take a mile."