Tax protest closes flagship Topshop store

Activists protesting against tax avoidance by big businesses and individuals took over one of the UK's busiest stores and forced it to close its doors to customers.

Retailer Topshop's flagship branch in London's Oxford Street was one of a series of stores where campaigners gathered in high streets across the country on Saturday.

Protests were also planned for towns and cities including Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham.

The West End protest started at 11am when protesters joined together inside Topshop and started blowing whistles and chanting as the store experienced one of its busiest shopping days of the year.

Many campaigners were forcibly removed from the premises by private security guards and police.

The activists, from UK Uncut, said they targeted the shop because it was part of Sir Philip Green's Arcadia retail group.

A spokeswoman for the group said: "Tax avoidance is a big issue and we believe this is the alternative to the cuts the Government are making."

One protester, Ed Greens, 20, from north west London, said: "We know that Topshop owes the Government £1.2 billion tax; together with companies like Vodafone, big businesses owe £126 billion.

"We are taking direct action on companies like Topshop which avoid large amounts of tax."

No-one from Arcadia was available for comment.