Labour leadership hopefuls pass judgement on Osborne’s Sunday trading proposals

George Osborne has announced that shops in England and Wales may be allowed to stay open for longer on a Sunday. Labour’s leadership candidates aren’t impressed.

As it stands, the law permits smaller shops to stay open all day, but those bigger than 280 sqm are only allowed to be open for 6 hours. Osborne’s proposals would change this, giving elected mayors and local councils the power to relax laws in their area.

However, it seems Labour’s leadership candidates are against these proposals. There’s agreement that this would eat into time usually spent with family and friends.

Jeremy Corbyn has said “I’m not in favour of relaxing Sunday trading laws. Sunday should be a different day especially for Shop workers who need a break.”

Yvette Cooper has argued that “George Osborne is getting it wrong on Sunday trading” because she thinks “the current legislation provides the right balance between Sunday shopping and protecting a bit of family time for shopworkers in a competitive market.”

She has said that changing the law will “put more parents under pressure to work longer at weekends rather than spend precious time with their kids. And asking each area to set their own rules just risks creating a race to the bottom between areas competing to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall took to Twitter to make clear the opposition to Osborne’s plans:

Sundays are only day people who work in shops can bank on some time with their kids. I will oppose this all the way > http://t.co/U99cf1XAvA

— Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) July 7, 2015

The Sunday Trading Act works: retailers can trade, customers can shop, shopworkers can spend time with families. Why change it? @UsdawUnion

— Liz Kendall (@leicesterliz) July 7, 2015