Morrisons has sparked a second petrol price war after cutting the cost of fuel by up to 2p a litre from today. This means drivers will pay no more than 112.9p a litre on unleaded and 113.9p on diesel across its 333 forecourts.

Sainsbury’s was hot on its heels as it too announced it would slash the price of diesel and unleaded by up to 2p a litre across its 308 forecourts, but the cuts take effect tomorrow.

Morrisons was the first supermarket to announce it would cut fuel prices on Wednesday following a fall in the price of oil, and Sainsbury’s and Tesco were quick to follow suit then.

However as the oil price fell by 5% on Thursday, Morrisons said it wanted to “do the best to pass on the benefit of a lower oil price as soon as it can”.

Roger Fogg, Morrisons services director, said: “We are responding quickly for our customers as many will be filling up at the weekend.”

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams, said: “It’s rare to see two price cuts from a supermarket in one week, let alone the introduction of a price cap which is great news for motorists across the country as it brings some very welcome pricing reassurance as well as helping to reduce the effects of the postcode fuel lottery.”