Britain's poultry industry has backed a supermarket's campaign to stop a rise in the tax slapped on hot roast chickens and re-kindled the 'pasty-gate' tax row.

In a spectacular U-turn in May, Chancellor George Osborne reversed plans to add 20% VAT to the cost of all hot food from October, just three months after he announced it in his 2012 Budget. His volte face followed weeks of pressure to exclude items such as pasties and pies left to cool on display. However the tax was maintained for food which is kept hot.

Morrisons supermarket, which organised a petition campaign with the support of the British Poultry Council (BPC), said shoppers were being treated unfairly, because its research revealed that over 80% of Morrisons shoppers bought their rotisserie chicken to eat later and as part of a traditional roast and not as a takeaway.

Peter Bradnock of the British Poultry Council said: 'This 20% tax hike in the price of Red Tractor chicken from British farms bought freshly-cooked in the supermarkets will hit shoppers and result in lost production for farmers. It is a sad irony that this 20% VAT tax will not apply to imports of already-cooked chicken meat coming from countries like Thailand, and our government is now making it even harder for British chicken farmers to compete.'

Campaigners say the problem for rotisserie chickens arose because of food safety reasons - they cannot be left to cool down for a prolonged period in the same way as pasties and pies.

Jamie Winter, fresh food director at Morrisons said: 'It's unfair to take a "catch all" approach without accepting that there will almost always be important exceptions. The simple fact is that our customers buy their whole rotisserie chicken as part of their weekly shop, not as a takeaway. Our customers tell us that they simply cannot pay more in these difficult times. That's why we're helping them to fight this unfair tax on the Great British Roast.'