TESCO boss Philip Clarke moaned yesterday of a decline in the supermarket’s sales — the worst he had seen in 40 years.

The retail giant posted a 3.7 per cent drop in like-for-like sales for the first quarter to May 24 as it battled with intense competition from discount rivals with customers abandoning Tesco in favour of the cheaper Asda or Lidl. 

It was the third quarter in a row of worsening falls and Mr Clarke, who is in his 40th year at the store after working his way up from the shop floor, warned there was no prospect of an end to the gloom any time soon. He negected to mention, however, that Tesco is still the biggest British supermarket with 28.6 per of market share, posting a whopping £3.3 billion profits for last year.