“Completely preposterous,” said Stuart Machin, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, about the Treasury’s proposal for voluntary price caps on food staples. He was outdone in the outrage stakes by City analyst Clive Black at Shore Capital, who thought the government “appears to be losing its mind in an orgy of neo-Soviet policy ideas”.
Both men can probably calm down. First, it’s not the first time a panicky administration, feeling the heat from cost-of-living pressures caused by rising energy costs, has flirted with the notion of limited and voluntary price caps in supermarkets. The last time was 2023 under the Tory premiership of Rishi Sunak, who is few people’s idea of a neo-Soviet apparatchik. Second, as with Sunak’s dalliance, it’s not going to happen. Treasury ministers on Wednesday barely bothered to defend their proposal and ruled out a mandatory scheme.
