Peter Lynas: We must Keep Sunday Special and reject attempts to liberalise Sunday Trading laws

Peter Lynas is a former barrister and spokesperson for the Keep Sunday Special campaign and researcher with the Relationships Foundation, a Cambridge based think tank seeking a better connected society.

Last week on Centre Right Mark Wallace argued that it was time to abolish Sunday Trading laws entirely. Along with many of those who posted comments, I think the law should remain as it is, protecting vulnerable workers, small family businesses and respecting the will of the vast majority of voters.

This year Boxing Day falls on a Sunday and some major retailers have begun a campaign to suspend Sunday Trading laws on that day. A question on the issue was raised last week in the House of Lords and in response the Business Minister Baroness Wilcox indicated there were no plans to change the law at the moment.

Mark described this decision as ‘petty and misguided’, claiming ‘the result will be a slower recovery’.

The problem is that the public don’t agree. A recent poll by the Association of Convenience Stores shows that only 5% of the public favour any liberalisation of Sunday trading laws. The small minority of retailers pushing for the deregulation of Sunday trading are out of step with the public. 85% of those polled oppose a one-off change to the law for Boxing Day.