People enter a McDonald’s in Moscow in 2018
(Picture: REUTERS)Consumers in Britain were urged to “vote with their feet” if McDonald’s and other western corporate giants refuse to pull out of Russia because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The fast food chain is one of a number of major companies facing calls for a boycott unless they join a list of dozens of firms which have already announced plans to scale back or cease trading in Russia.
As western governments ratchet up the pressure on Mr Putin’s regime with financial sanctions, a growing number of big companies including Levi’s, Netflix and Visa have said they are cutting ties with Russia.
Shell announced on Tuesday its intent to withdraw from its involvement in all Russian hydrocarbons, including crude oil, petroleum products, gas and liquefied natural gas in what it described as a “phased manner”. It said as an immediate first step it will stop all spot purchases of Russian crude oil and will shut its service stations, aviation fuels and lubricants operations in Russia.
Now MPs have called on those major brands, which include Coca Cola, Starbucks and Burger King, which have so far failed to follow suit to “put people before profits” and show solidarity with Ukraine.
Rupa Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, told the Standard: “In the face of the non-withdrawal from Russia of CocaCola and McDonald’s, which seems an immoral decision to put profits before humanity, I would urge individuals to stage their own boycott. I’ve substituted Big Mac for other options lately...People power can have results and a worldwide boycott would hurt these businesses more.”
Labour MP Andy McDonald, a member of the Commons business committee, added: “McDonald’s and Coca Cola and their like should be giving that very clear lead and signal that they are standing in unity with the rest of the world. In the absence of that, people should vote with their feet.”
Tobias Ellwood, Conservative Chair of the Defence Select Committee, said: “Every day another company signs up and declares they are pulling out, they are ratcheting up the pressure on Putin. Every single company should look themselves in the mirror and ask are they doing enough.
“McDonald’s should not be putting profits before the responsibility to support the people of Ukraine.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey MP said: “History will not be kind to these companies if they don’t finally do the decent thing and pull out of Russia. If they don’t act soon then it will be hard to ignore calls for a boycott.”
Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Starbucks and Burger King did not immediately respond to the Standard’s request for comment. Many fast food restaurants operate as franchises making it harder for companies to quickly shut down or scale back operations in some markets.
The backlash against the food and drinks companies came as Russia warned the West it could slash gas supplies to Europe if the US and European countries went ahead with an embargo on Russian oil supplies.
The price of oil jumped in recent days, rising to over $139 a barrel on Monday.
It also emerged that drivers have been hit by the biggest weekly hike in fuel prices in at least 18 years.
Figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts rose from 149.22 on 28 February to 152.95p yesterday.
Average diesel prices increased from 153.36p to 158.56p over the same period.
On Monday, Boris Johnson said he would soon set out an energy supply strategy which will involve greater use of domestic energy resources.
But with energy bills already set to rise in April along with National Insurance, the war in Ukraine is likely to add to the tight squeeze on household finances.
Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation think-tank told the BBC: “The livelihoods of people here in the UK are going to be significantly effected. We were expecting inflation to be peaking at a bit over 7 per cent... and now it’s hard to believe it’s not going to be peaking above 8 per cent. Although the economic recovery is now well under way we are heading into a living standards recession.”
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace refused to be drawn on calls for a boycott of McDonald’s but in an interview with LBC he said he said he would now choose to drink Polish rather than Russian vodka. He urged people to “keep it local”.
On the question of a Russian oil ban he said it was important western nations left some sanctions “on the table” to act as a deterrent to Mr Putin. He told Talk Radio: “If you go even more extreme, if you do something even more catastrophic we w have something to play. If you play all your cards in your first hand you are unlikely to make a change.”
