SUPERMARKETS and the food industry are fuelling “greedflation” and must be held to account, a union leader demanded today as a Labour MP called for an excess profit tax in Parliament.

Leeds East MP Richard Burgon was due to lead a debate on the levels of corporate profit and inflation as the Morning Star went to print.

He was expected to call on the government to implement a temporary economy-wide excess profits tax to clamp down on corporate profiteering.

Soaring profits, caused by firms hiking prices, is fuelling inflation in a process known as “greedflation,” Mr Burgon was expected to argue in the debate, the first to specifically look at the subject.

Ahead of the debate, Mr Burgon said: “It is increasingly clear that some corporations are hiking prices to boost their profits and that this is now a major cause of the inflation crisis.

“Yet the government has so far ignored this ‘greedflation’ and has instead focused on workers’ wages, even though real wages are falling.

“The kind of tax we have seen on the super-profits of oil and gas firms should now be extended to all the other sectors that are making excess profits from this crisis at the expense of ordinary people.

“That would send a clear message to these companies that their profiteering must stop.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said that workers and communities “need action, not a PR event at No 10 then back to business as usual.”

She said: “When millions of workers are struggling to feed their families Britain’s biggest supermarkets are engaged in a grotesque display of profiteering, which is also happening right across the supply chain.

“Industries are choosing to take advantage of a crisis, resulting in the spiralling prices of goods we all need.”

Highlighting Unite’s research, Ms Graham said: “Britain’s biggest supermarket Tesco has made £3 billion in profit in two years, while their shareholders receive a £1bn share buyback bonanza.

“So far, the government have done absolutely nothing to reduce these staggeringly excessive profits of supermarkets.”

Unite’s analysis of company profits in March also revealed that profiteering spiked during and after pandemic, with margins 89 per cent higher than the first half of 2019.