Dorchester's MP Chris Loder has escalated the issue of fuel pricing disparities, that he says has seen motorists from West Dorset unfairly charged a premium for petrol, with at a one-to-one meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

This was the third such intervention since his first parliamentary question to Mr Sunak during Prime Minister's Questions in November last year.

Conservative Mr Loder explained: "I am very serious about the need to address the fundamentally immoral practice of charging some rural communities in some cases up to 20 pence per litre more for their petrol or diesel.

"The case of Morrisons in Bridport exemplified this. This pricing policy has meant many of my hard working constituents, some of them having to drive many miles a day for work, are paying more than they ought to at a time when the cost of living has already left people feeling the pinch."

The Prime Minister confirmed an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was to commence after Mr Loder's intervention at Prime Minister's Questions in November last year.

Since then, the investigation has already started to shine a spotlight on some of the pricing practices employed by the fuel industry. 

Mr Loder added: "Now that I have enabled the government to shine a spotlight on these issues, I am now keeping the Prime Minister very much in the picture on the need to see clear action taken to expedite fairness to West Dorset against supermarket greed."