The government could soon find itself being lobbied by both Sainsbury and Tesco as the supermarket chains try to change a law that prevents them opening more than six hours on the Sabbath. Executives at both groups have examined their options in the wake of the licensing White Paper ­ with Sainsbury said by one source to have been "leading the charge". Sainsbury said there was "no truth in that at all". Tesco denied it was keen to press for reform of the Sunday trading rules when we broke the story in May (The Grocer, May 13, p5). A Home Office spokesman said he would not be surprised if the Sunday opening issue was raised by retailers during the consultation on the White Paper. And one Whitehall source agreed that although there was no sign of any lobbying action at the moment, the big supermarket chains would use the White Paper as a "Trojan Horse" to raise the Sunday trading issue. But she added: "The Home Office will not want to touch this with a bargepole because it will make the licensing bill too controversial ­ particularly in the House of Commons." Fears that Tesco is preparing to mount such a campaign resurfaced this week with news it is extending delivery times of its online service to 10pm on Sundays. The Home Office confirmed it was perfectly legal for Tesco to continue picking orders in stores late into the evening if the stores remained closed. FWD director general Alan Toft said it would resist "very aggressively any move by the superstores to change the current restrictions". {{NEWS }}

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