MPs reject bid to allow High Street stores to open longer on Sundays

Politicians at Westminster Wednesday night rejected a change in the law that would have allowed high street stores to open longer hours on Sundays.

Currently large stores can only trade for six hours on the Sabbath, though smaller shops are not restricted.

The government wanted to lift to controls to allow city mayors and district council leaders to decide whether shops in their towns and cities should open longer.

Members of Parliament from all sides of the House of Commons opposed a government attempt to allow longer trading hours on Sundays. Ministers announced a series of 11th hour concessions to win support.

Opponents feared it would affect the lives of millions of store staff, and end the days when "Sunday is special", but the government argued that on-line shopping had changed the trading landscape and big stores needed to fight back.

After a day long debate opponents won by a vote of 317 to 286, a major blow for Chancellor George Osborne.

During the 2012 London Olympics Sunday trading laws were suspended to allow all shops to open longer hours.

Supporters had hoped that would open the door for the move to be made permanent.

A number of Conservative rebels voted against the government, along with members of the Scottish Nationalist Party. In Scotland there are no Sunday trading restrictions.

New figures published Wednesday showed that extended Sunday trading hours would benefit the British economy by an estimated 1.5 billion pounds (about 2.13 billion U.S. dollars) over 10 years.

Government Communities Minister Brandon Lewis said current Sunday trading rules are badly out of date and haven't kept up with how people live their lives.

He argued that a change of the rules would let families shop for longer, and would allow town center stores to compete with the online giants, creating more jobs for working people.

But the six hour rule us to stay, with all day trading never allowed on Sundays. Endit