Conservative MPs and retailers have hit out at UK authorities plans to encourage supermarkets to cap the value of meals staples, in a fierce backlash. 

Well being secretary Steve Barclay mentioned on Sunday that ministers have been in talks with retailers about easy methods to “handle the very actual issues” many Britons harbour about meals inflation and the price of residing, together with the potential of introducing voluntary worth caps.

Barclay advised the BBC that the federal government was “working constructively” with supermarkets. 

Nevertheless, Andrew Opie of the British Retail Consortium, which represents main supermarkets, mentioned the plan “is not going to make a jot of distinction” to excessive meals costs, that are the results of hovering vitality, transport and labour prices. 

Accusing ministers of preserving meals inflation excessive regardless of falling commodity costs by presiding over a “muddle” of latest regulation, he mentioned: “Moderately than recreating Seventies-style worth controls, the federal government ought to deal with chopping crimson tape.”

Ex-Tory chief Sir Iain Duncan Smith mentioned he was “at all times fairly involved once we begin getting concerned within the free markets”, and former frontbencher Sir John Redwood warned that any state intervention on worth setting raised “competitors legislation hazards”. 

Earlier this month Mark Spencer, minister for meals, farming and fisheries, explicitly dominated out asking retailers and producers to cease elevating costs.

However in an indication that the Conservative occasion was cut up over the thought, Sir John Hayes, chair of the so-called Widespread Sense Group of MPs, mentioned a worth cap was a “actually good transfer”, including that if a voluntary system didn’t efficiently decrease costs, “the federal government should go additional”.

The proposal was first reported by The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

Opie mentioned that supermarkets ran on slim margins and income had already fallen up to now 12 months, whereas many retailers have expanded reasonably priced meals ranges and locked costs on important merchandise.

The annual inflation charge for meals and non-alcoholic drinks stays stubbornly excessive, at 19.1 per cent in April. Meals has overtaken gas as the one greatest driver of the inflation.

The Decision Basis think-tank calculates that annual meals payments for the common household shall be £1,000 larger than their pre-pandemic degree by July, hitting poorer households tougher as a result of they spend the next proportion of their budgets on meals.

Alarm over the affect on struggling households has prompted ministers to host a flurry of conferences up to now month. 

Officers described the federal government proposals for supermarkets to introduce a voluntary worth cap on important objects akin to bread and milk as being on the “drawing-board stage”.

Economists mentioned it might be higher to extend welfare advantages for the poorest households and depend on competitors to deliver down costs.

Julian Jessop, former chief economist on the free market Institute of Financial Affairs, mentioned supermarkets could be keen to treat some primary objects as loss leaders, however might reduce corners on high quality or increase costs on different objects to compensate. They may additionally deal with the cap as a ground as soon as falling prices allowed, moderately than chopping costs.

Labour described the proposals as “extraordinary”. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, advised the BBC: “Rishi Sunak is now like a type of latter-day Edward Heath with worth controls.”

Within the Seventies Heath, then prime minister, launched worth controls in a bid to curb inflation.

A authorities official mentioned: “We recognise retailers function on low margins. However we’re conscious about the price of residing squeeze folks really feel. So we’re speaking to retailers about what will be carried out to maintain costs as little as attainable.”

Earlier this 12 months the French authorities agreed a cope with main supermarkets beneath which retailers have been requested to make their very own alternative about which meals objects to earmark for worth freezes and reductions.