Aldi’s UK chief executive, Giles Hurley, has come out in support of prime minister Andy Burnham’s campaign against “phoney bargains” after backlash from industry bodies, according to reporting by The Sunday Times.

Following Burnham’s comments, ministers have pledged to pursue companies suspected of taking advantage of shoppers by advertising deals that make sale prices look lower than they really are.

The British Retail Consortium quickly responded, suggesting that big supermarkets in the UK deliver “the most affordable food in Western Europe”.

Now, Hurley, who has led Aldi UK for six eight years, has weighed in, saying ministers were “right to review retail ‘sale’ pricing mechanics in their work to tackle cost of living pressures”.

“For too long, shoppers have been bombarded with discount signs and loyalty prices that can give the impression they’re getting a great deal, when the price they pay at the till can still be higher than elsewhere,” he added, speaking to The Sunday Times.

Aldi is one of the few major UK supermarkets that does not offer a traditional loyalty scheme such as Sainsbury’s Nectar Card or Tesco’s Clubcard. These cards have been a major focus for large grocers in recent years, with supermarkets including Morrisons and Marks and Spencer revamping their schemes in order to drive sales, and others using them as a form of price competition.

However, they have faced criticism for amounting to a “loyalty tax”, with Aldi previously finding that shoppers using cards across the country paying up to £126 a month more than they would at Aldi.

Hurley echoed this research in his comments to The Times, saying “The problem with loyalty pricing is that it encourages shoppers to focus on how much they’ve supposedly saved, rather than how much they’ve actually spent.”

Despite these comments, other major supermarkets are standing firm, with City AM reporting that both Sainsbury’s and Tesco are confident that their loyalty schemes provide genuine discounts compared to rivals in the grocery market.

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