Supermarkets on Monday made clear they have no intention of scrapping alcohol promotions despite being criticised by MPs for fuelling Britain’s “binge-drinking” culture by selling brands cheaply as loss leaders.

The British Retail Consortium, which represents some of the biggest supermarket chains, including Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda, hit back at MPs on the Commons home affairs select committee, who recommended that they should be banned from selling alcohol at below cost.