Britain’s biggest grocer grew like-for-like sales 0.4% in its core UK and Ireland business during the six weeks to January 4 and registered the biggest sales day in its 100-year history on December 23.

Lewis hailed that as “quite an achievement”, coming against a backdrop of intense price competition in the food market.

Tesco said its basket sizes were “smaller in terms of value” during the festive period as a result of the investments it made in price.