• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• UK: McDonald's branches out

UK: McDonald's branches out

01 May 1996

McDonald's, the hamburger chain, have been receiving information from the Special Branch to assist its High Court libel action against two environmentalists, Helen Steel and David Morris, known as the McLibel 2. The $26 billion corporation have alleged that a leaflet, accusing the firm of producing food that is linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and of abusing its staff, is libelous. Giving evidence to the court on behalf of McDonald's, Sydney Nicholson, vice-president, claimed that Special Branch officers supplied information to the company about the environmentalists who had distributed the leaflet. Officers from the Animal Rights Index identified protesters outside the company's headquarters, two of whom were subsequently issued with writs. The firm also employed up to seven private detectives, from two agencies, to monitor the activities of London Greenpeace (which has no connections with Greenpeace International) which produced the leaflet. The private detectives often attended meetings of the group and on one occasion, during 1990, three of the four people who attended were from undercover agencies. Scotland Yard denied that Special Branch officers supplied companies with information on suspected political, animal rights or environmental activists adding "we are unaware of any instances where this has happened." Independent 12.6.96.