SHOP workers raised the alarm yesterday over a backdoor bid to crack open Sunday trading laws that protect people from a Victorian-style working week.

Retail union Usdaw said that an amendment slipped in by Lord Borwick to the government’s Deregulation Bill could land thousands of garden-centre workers with longer weekend hours.

Usdaw general secretary John Hannett warned the change could “open up a loophole in the Sunday Trading Act, allowing large stores to redefine themselves as a garden centre.”

“Parliament decided that garden centres should fall within the scope of the Sunday Trading Act, not least because it is difficult to distinguish between a garden centre and a large store with a gardening department,” he explained.