Protesters against corporate tax avoidance carried out their biggest day of action to date by targeting businesses in 55 towns and cities across the UK.

In Brighton, activists dressed as Santa Claus glued themselves to structures inside department store BHS to prevent themselves from being ejected.

Protesters in London mounting a "disruptive tax dodger tour" claimed to have shut fashion chains Dorothy Perkins and Burton, both owned by Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group.

Attempts to close Topshop's flagship store in London's Oxford Street and a major Vodafone outlet nearby failed due to extra security measures that had been implemented to frustrate the tax campaigners. Freezing weather, with heavy snow around the country, is also likely to have diminished the numbers of protesters.

Inside Topshop, large numbers of in-store security guards were assisted by Scotland Yard officers manning doorways to prevent protesters damaging trade on what was expected to be the year's busiest shopping day. Two weeks earlier campaigners against tax avoidance had forced the store to close temporarily.

A number of protesters who had attempted to sneak inside were intercepted by police and ejected. Shortly after 1pm, a group of around 50 managed to force their way inside and sit down before being politely asked to leave.

Green's wife, the firm's direct owner, has been criticised for living in a tax haven. Protesters are also targeting Topshop's parent firm, Arcadia, which incorporates 2,500 British stores.

One young demonstrator at the Topshop protest, Nick Christensen, 17, of Dr Challoner's grammar school in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, said: "I am here for the teachers and pupils of the future. They should not be made victims because companies avoid paying their taxes."

Another campaigner, caught by police entering the store carrying a football – to symbolise the government's planned cuts to school sports funding – was Frederick Mohan, 21, from London. He said: "I'll be back. I'll keep coming until people start abandoning the three main political parties in favour of a newer approach."

Branded "pay-day", yesterday's protests were organised by UK Uncut, the anti-corporate tax avoidance group that has grown rapidly since being formed by 12 activists in the Nag's Head pub in Islington, north London, in October.

However, the group reported that a number of protests had been extremely successful, with store closures in Edinburgh, Truro, Manchester, Cambridge, Liverpool, Wrexham, Tunbridge Wells, Bristol, Nottingham and Oxford, and in London at Walthamstow, Brixton and Islington.

Green remains the focus of growing public anger, but companies such as Boots, Marks and Spencer, Barclays and HSBC have also been targeted nationally over tax avoidance claims.

Rebecca Davies, 32, said: "Over four years £100bn is expected to be lost to the public purse to tax avoidance, which could pay for so many of the cuts that will hit the poorest in our society."

"Ordinary people around Britain will stand up and show that they will not be lied to, and that we will not let these unnecessary cuts happen without a fight."

UK Uncut has no recognised hierarchy with demonstrations started by people acting autonomously, often using Twitter and Facebook to organise.