The government is mulling a year-long suspension of Sunday trading restrictions across England in a bid to boost the economy.

The move is being considered alongside a raft of measures to help boost local economies across the country, which have been laid low by the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime minister Boris Johnson, chief adviser Dominic Cummings, chancellor Rishi Sunak and business secretary Alok Sharma are all understood to support the measure, according to The Times.

Current Sunday trading laws limit shops with retail space over 280 square metres to a maximum of six hours of trading – under new legislation larger supermarkets would be able to open for longer.

The possible move has its detractors, however. Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said shop staff were “deeply worried” about what this move could mean for the amount of time frontline workers have with their families.

Trade union Usdaw’s general secretary Paddy Lillis has also written a letter to Sharma, which slams the mooted move as “a slap in the face for each and every worker in retail and the food supply chain”.

Conservative chief whip Mark Spencer is also said to be concerned that scrapping current Sunday trading restrictions will be met with fierce opposition by more traditionalist MPs across party lines.

The last attempt to abolish Sunday trading laws, made by David Cameron in 2016, was quashed after 27 Tory MPs rebelled.

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