“Cynical political maneuvering of the worst kind”. No, that’s not a reaction to the clockwork regularity at which Boris Johnson seems to turn up when there is something good happening in London. It was the view of Usdaw general secretary John Hannett on what he saw as several government ministers trying to float the idea of longer Sunday opening hours into the public consciousness on the back of the Olympic feel-good factor.

Hannett clearly has every right to be concerned about an issue many of his members feel passionately about but equally he could be reading slightly too much into the rather confused noises coming out of Whitehall on the matter in the past few weeks. Eric Pickles initially set the cat among the pigeons by mooting a potential government consultation before Vince Cable poured cold water on the matter claiming he was skeptical of the benefits.

Rather than any kind of devious political shenanigans, this just seems to highlight the complexity of the issue and the differences of opinion at both government level and between retailers themselves.

This weekend the BRC said it would not be lobbying for a permanent change as the sun set on the change introduced for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Hardly surprising when some of its biggest and most influential members are at loggerheads when it comes to longer opening hours on a Sunday.

Last week Morrisons CEO Dalton Philips called the current laws “arcane” and said he would lobby for the hours in which larger stores can open to increase from six to eight hours. This is in stark contrast to Sainsbury’s boss Justin King who praises the current system as a “great British compromise”.

Of course, Sainsbury’s has 500 c-stores compared to Morrisons with just the five. Philips is also calling for changes to be implemented to alleviate the pressure on shoppers and retailers caused by 23 December falling on a Sunday this year. However, The Grocer understands it is now too late to get a further piece of emergency legislation through parliament in time. Any further changes to Sunday trading will likely be a much more lengthy process.

Without the results of how trading has been over the past eight Sunday’s it is hard to say which way the Government will go but unless retailers themselves can agree it seems unlikely that it will be all that encouraged to go ahead with any major changes.

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