The British Retail Consortium has released figures that reveal the true extent of the impact of the petrol crisis on sales figures. Spending soared in UK supermarkets as waves of panic buying decimated supplies on store shelves.

Sales were strong during the first two weeks of September, but the fuel crisis gave them “significant uplift” in the third week, and then saw them fall sharply at the end of the protests. Milk, tinned and frozen food and toilet rolls witnessed the greatest demand and all contributed to like-for-like September sales increasing by 2.9% on the year earlier.