A middle class family has been forced to apologise to neighbours and fellow middle class families around the country for shopping in Aldi at the weekend. The Rutherford-Hythe family were spotted coming out of the budget supermarket with a cut-price lobster and a £3 bottle of Prosecco, as well as a number of vegetable items.

“We deeply regret our error of judgement”, said father of two, Hugh. “We realise that the middle classes, of which we are an integral part, are deeply disgusted at us having ditched Waitrose for our weekly shop, and promise not to repeat this grave, grave mistake.”

“In fact, in order to demonstrate just how sorry we are, we have pledged to compensate for our Aldi nightmare by taking Jemima and Charles to Fortnum & Mason’s for tea.”

However, neighbours have reported several Aldi incidents over the last few months, including a sighting of wife Margaret coming out of a nearby Lidl with what appeared to be cleaning products. Indeed, 11-year-old son Charles was caught by Middle Class Police looking in the window of Poundland.

“They’re bringing us into disrepute,” said Head of the British Middle Classes, Trevor Classemoyen, in a stinging rebuke in this month’s “Middle England” magazine. “Having foregone Waitrose and organic vegetables, they’re now buying 99p bargain boxes of Kitkats and browsing through the bargain patridges on offer at Aldi. I fully expect them to be downgraded to Working Class within the next few weeks so that we no longer have to worry about their disgusting behaviour.”

However, the Rutherford-Hithes have insisted that on their foray through Aldi, they came across several other middle class families, part-acknowledging and part-hiding their faces from their compatriots.

“I saw the Blakeney-Watts and the Voleshit-Adamses in there the other week,” said Hugh, “and while we struggled to contain our collective embarassment at poking around the 9p tins of Alphabetti Spaghetti, I must admit a coming together, a feeling of brotherly kinship towards them, knowing that we were alone in representing the Middle Class in Aldi.”

“Now I hear that they’re denying everything, and I feel hurt. They even have alibis saying they were in the farm shop at that very moment in time, but I don’t believe a word of it.”