UK shoppers spent billions in the Boxing Day sales last year
Theresa May has refused calls to allow shops to shut on Boxing Day, she said it’s not the governments job to tell businesses how they should run their shows.
The news comes about after a petition with more than 140,000 signatures called for shops to shut on Boxing Day, on the basis that it exploits low paid workers.
MPs will hold a Westminster Hall debate on the issue.
The British Retail Consortium says Boxing Day has been a popular shopping day for years now.
In 2015, UK shoppers managed to spend £3.74bn in the Boxing Day sales, according to research found by VoucherCodes.co.uk and the Centre for Retail Research. This was a six per cent increase on 2014 figures.
Labour’s, Helen Jones, who chairs the Petitions Committee, said the current system on Boxing Day sales exploits low paid workers and deprives them of time spent with their families over the Christmas holidays.
The Warrington North MP, told the Telegraph: “What I’ve not seen is anything to convince me that Boxing Day generates extra trade, as opposed to just moving it from another day.”
“No one died because a shop was shut, and I think we are exercising our freedom to shop whenever we want on the backs of some very low-paid workers, who are being exploited and being denied the freedom to expect to have the time with their families.”
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