MP Michael Fabricant in 'rip off' warning to supermarkets over inflated food prices

He said supermarkets must "rapidly reflect" cheaper prices and not follow those fuel retailers who kept prices high despite a fall in the price of world oil.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this week met food manufacturers to raise concerns over the impact of price inflation on struggling households.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Fabricant pressed food minister Mark Spencer on whether cheaper wholesale food costs were being passed on to shoppers.

He said: "My constituents in Lichfield and Burntwood, and indeed the rest of the country, are enduring high food inflation, as indeed they are in the rest of Europe.

"What controls have we got, if that's the word, to ensure that supermarkets don't take unfair advantage and excess profits from wholesale prices?"

Mr Spencer said: "Retailers work to ensure strong competitive pressure remains in the marketplace. However, the Competition and Markets Authority announced last week that they're looking into the grocery sector to see whether any failure in competition is contributing to prices being higher than they would be normally."

Mr Fabricant later added: "When wholesale food prices begin to fall again – and they will when the Ukraine War has ended – it is important that supermarkets rapidly reflect the downward change in wholesale food prices and do not behave like some fuel retailers who are quick to raise prices, but slow to reduce them when world oil prices fall.

"The Competition and Markets Authority must be robust in ensuring this."

Reports this week suggested UK food price inflation remains at its third-highest level since the financial crisis.

The average cost of four pints of milk has come down by 8p since last month, but remains 30p higher than it was this time last year at £1.60.