Amazon embargo gains momentum as pledge sees £2.6m of sales diverted elsewhere in living wage protest

It has calculated that Amazon will be missing out on over £2.6m in revenue already with over 12,000 people signed up. This will harm the firm which today launched its Cyber Monday promotion offering a new deal every ten minutes.

The site reads: “Amazon is facilitating in-work poverty by not paying its workers living wages. That’s the basic amount needed to buy the bare essentials of life.

“By putting warehouses in areas of low socio-economic opportunity, it preys on people who have no alternative but to work in its prison-like conditions.

“[Amazon] dodges its tax. They take money away from our local shops. So this year, let’s take our money away from them. Christmas is Amazon’s busiest time of year - it’s also our best chance to disrupt their business."

The site instead suggests a number of ethical retailers to shop at, ranking companies on how they “treat their workers, and whether they are likely to be dodging tax”.

This comes as Kivin Varghese, a former Amazon employee, holds a hunger strike outside chief executive Jeff Bezos’ office in Seattle until the company addresses the way it treats its workers.

He said: "I’m calling on customers to join us in protest: don’t give your money to Amazon this holiday season - that’s the best way we can drive change.

"It’s time Amazon faced up to the human toll of its long-standing unethical and draconian business practices."

Last year Amazon paid £3.15m of tax to the UK despite making sales worth a staggering £4.3bn.