In a letter to Mohsin Issa, one of the supermarket’s co-owners, the chair of parliament’s business and trade select committee Darren Jones asked for details of Asda’s corporate structure, capital investment and profit margins on petrol.

“The committee has concerns that the complex company structure within which Asda sits, and associated decisions on financing, may restrict your ability to help meet cost-of-living pressures on your customers,” Jones wrote in the letter published on the committee’s website.