Fifteen years after a postman and an unemployed gardener provoked the fury of McDonald’s by distributing highly uncomplimentary leaflets outside one of its restaurants, the “McLibel” pair chose a central London burger outlet to taunt the multinational on Tuesday.

Unfurling a banner that called for a celebration of 20 years of “global resistance to McWorld” Dave Morris and Helen Steel, the two indefatigable activists, praised what they saw as the “growing opposition to McDonald’s and all it stands for”.