The bosses of some of the UK’s biggest retailers have vented their anger at the major tax avoidance of multinational companies such as Starbucks and Amazon.

Sainsbury’s, Waterstones and Home Retail Group have expressed their outrage at the issue following David Cameron’s speech yesterday in which he said tax avoiders “need to wake up and smell the coffee”. During his speech at the World Economic Conference in Switzerland, the Prime Minister pushed for international action on tackling corporate tax evasion and avoidance. Cameron’s strong words followed claims late last year that global firms such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google had avoided paying tax.

James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, told The Financial Times that he was frustrated that the current system allowed for tax avoidance to take place.

“If you create a situation where multinational companies of the Starbucks and Amazon variety are able to exploit the rules perfectly legally to minimise their tax and we are conversely unable to do that, we are not operating remotely in a level playing field.

“There will be further casualties as a result of that. My outrage is not to the companies trying to minimise their tax bill. My outrage is directed to our political masters who have created an environment in which that is legal and permissible,” he said.

Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, told the newspaper that shoppers should take companies’ tax contributions into account when making purchases.

“It is for consumers to ask tough questions of the companies they do business with,” he said.

Terry Duddy, chief executive of Argos-owner Home Retail Group, said online rivals benefit from paying lower tax rates while physical retailers have to also pay business rates and do not qualify for tax breaks when making investments to upgrade stores. “It’s a problem for general retail,” he said.