An MP is urging all of the major supermarket chains to stop “predatory purchasing” pubs across the country.

Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West, is also calling on the Government to close a planning loophole that allows the “scandal” of losing viable inns to superstores without local communities having any say. Mr Mulholland, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, has branded the current situation as “anti-localism, anti-community and anti-small business”.

To support his case, he cites research by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) which shows more than 200 pubs in the UK have been turned into supermarket convenience stores since January, 2010.

He said: “It is a scandal that viable and wanted pubs are being converted into supermarkets as a result of absurd loopholes in the planning system.”