Zac Goldsmith calls for boycott of Sainsbury's

The environmental activist Zac Goldsmith has called for the "most successful ever boycott" against Sainsbury's, launching a stinging personal attack on the supermarket's chief executive, Justin King.

Mr Goldsmith, now a Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate, claims the retailer went back on a promise not to build a new store in the west London suburb of Barnes, part of the leafy Richmond Park constituency that Mr Goldsmith will fight at the next general election.

Local campaigners have opposed Sainsbury's plans to open a branch on White Hart Lane, opposite the home of the songwriter Sir Tim Rice, who is also against the development. They claim the supermarket chain is ignoring local opinion and will crush local small shops that are already struggling to survive.

"This move is completely undemocratic, and goes against the grain in every sense," Mr Goldsmith says on a video to be posted on the Friction.tv website (see bottom of page).

"Besides misleading the local group and besides misleading me, they [Sainsbury's] have put their fingers up at the community. This is yet another example of a huge corporation steamrolling and bulldozing over a community. Where we need to go now is to organise what I hope will be the most successful ever boycott campaign against this company."

Watch Zac Goldsmith explain the Sainsbury's boycott (Courtesty of Friction.tv)

Mr Goldsmith, 33, arranged for a professional and independent local referendum, conducted by Electoral Reform Services, to ask all those living within a mile and a half of the proposed store if they approved of the development. Eighty-five per cent said they did not.

A campaign group, the White Hart Action Group (Whag), alleges Mr King told them at a private meeting last September that he would consider "all viable commercial propositions" from other retailers. They also claim he confirmed this position by email.

Whag said it understood this to mean that if it could find another retailer who was not one of Sainsbury's major high-street competitors, and who would not cause the chain substantial losses, Sainsbury's would not press ahead with the development.

The grocer Planet Organic emerged as one candidate to pay the required rent and cover Sainsbury's costs. "At that point, Sainsbury's backed down," Mr Goldsmith says in the video. "They obviously realised that by allowing us to find an alternative operator it would send a very strong message to communities all around the country who are fighting the big supermarkets."

Mr Goldsmith alleges that Sainsbury's then "upped the cost of the site from around £130,000 to about £1m, which is obviously above any company except perhaps Tesco."

Sainsbury's has strongly denied that Mr King or other representatives of the company ever made promises to local campaigners.

In a statement yesterday the retailer said: "We do not have, and never have had, an agreement with Whag. As we have repeatedly stated, if a commercially viable proposition were put to us then we will of course give it proper consideration.

"No such offer has been received and we have not reneged on any deal. This development was subject to a very public planning process, including a public inquiry, which has given local residents the opportunity to voice their opinion. We have received messages of support from local residents and we believe it will benefit the community."