On 30 April, the UK Competition Commission will hold its public hearing into the fight to buy the Safeway supermarket group.

A formal offer has been made by William Morrison, while bids are also thought to be forthcoming from Tesco, Wal-Mart’s Asda subsidiary and Sainsbury’s.

The meeting is expected to be attended by senior figures from the supermarkets keen to buy Safeway, as well as suppliers and consumer representatives.