Asda kicked off the petrol price war as it announced it would cut the price of unleaded and diesel by 2p a litre from tomorrow. This means motorists will pay no more than 111.7p per litre at all of its petrol forecourts across the UK.

This then prompted the following three supermarkets to announce their own price cuts:

Morrisons: It will cut unleaded and diesel by up to 2p-a-litre from tomorrow morning at all of its sites. Ashley Myers, buying manager petrol, said: “We will always aim to drop prices as soon as we can and always keep them far below the UK average.”

Sainsbury’s: From tomorrow Sainsbury’s will cut the price of diesel and unleaded petrol by up to 2p per litre across all of its 309 UK forecourts. It added that customers will also be able to collect Nectar points on every fill-up – one point for every litre purchased. Izzy Hexter, Sainsbury’s fuel buying manager, said: “We always aim to provide our customers with fantastic prices and great quality across all of our products and services, so we hope this price drop will help them keep costs down in the run up to summer holidays.”

Tesco:  This is the only supermarket to cut petrol and diesel by up to 2p per litre at all of its 500 petrol filling stations from this afternoon. Peter Cattell, fuel director for Tesco, said: “We know that lots of customers will have plans to enjoy the good weather predicted for this weekend, so we’re delighted to be dropping the price of fuel to help them enjoy it even more.”

‘Much-needed price cut’

Simon Williams of RAC fuel, said: “While the value of the pound has fallen since the election, the price of oil has also reduced, bringing down wholesale fuel costs which should rightly be passed on to motorists at the pumps.

“Unfortunately, a cut to the price of diesel is long overdue as its wholesale price has been lower than petrol’s for weeks with little reflection of this on the forecourt. Hopefully, this will be the start of greater diesel price transparency.”