“Inflexible” licensing laws must be changed to avoid a row over the sale of alcohol in pubs ahead of the women’s World Cup final on Sunday morning, a former Cabinet minister has said.

Alun Cairns, a former Welsh secretary, suggested the Licensing Act 2003 should be amended to allow the Home Secretary to make a unilateral and blanket decision to ease the rules on special occasions.

This would bypass the cumbersome requirement for MPs to have to vote on such changes, making it much quicker and easier to react to major events.

Pubs can open whenever they want, but the time from which they can sell alcohol depends on the specific terms of their licence.

Individual pubs can apply for a temporary event notice to serve alcohol outside their licensed hours, but this usually takes five working days for councils to process.