The government will not impose mandatory caps on food prices in supermarkets, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby has said.

She told GB News: “I’m happy to be able to tell you we’re not introducing mandatory price caps.

“What there have been are discussions between the Chancellor and the supermarkets, as indeed there’ve been discussions with other industries too, about how we try and put some downward pressure on prices so that we can be helping people with the cost of living.

“Now, one of the, one of the things we’re announcing today, which comes on the back of what the Prime Minister was talking about yesterday, cutting or having the freeze, I should say, on fuel duty.

“One thing we’re talking about today is free unlimited bus travel for children in England in August, and that goes alongside something else that we’re talking about today, which is getting rid of some tariffs on agri foods, which is something else, which is going to help with the price of the weekly shop.

“Look, when you take all of these measures together, and the Chancellor is going to be setting out some further stuff in the chamber later on today, this package altogether is all about trying to help families right across this country with the cost of living, because we understand that family budgets are stretched at the moment.

“This comes on the back of a whole host of things, which we’ve been doing as a government. So, for example, raising the minimum wage and the national living wage, we’ve been freezing rail fares, we’ve been freezing prescription charges, plenty of other things too, but as I said, this is all geared to trying to help families right across this country with the cost of living.”