Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, today claimed that the coffee giant has been forced to undertake a vital societal role in the US because of the failings of the American government.

"We will not turn our backs on the social problems that exist in America," the 61-year-old said at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year conference in Monaco. "There has been a fracturing of people's trust in Washington and I have seen first-hand the fracturing of the American dream."

Mr Schultz slammed the Obama administration for failing to make headway on the ongoing problem of racial prejudice in the US.

"These issues divide the nation," he said. "If you look back to Selma and Martin Luther King, have we as a country made progress? Not as much as we should have made. In fact you could argue we’ve gone backwards."

Starbucks, which now has a market capitalisation of $80bn (£51.9bn), has undertaken a number of social impact schemes through its US outlets. It recently ran a "Race Together" scheme to celebrate diversity, printing the slogan on its cups and pledging to open Starbucks stores in communities with large minority populations.

Starbuck CEO Howard Schultz says the coffee chain is big on championing social issues

The coffee chain, which boasts 22,000 stores worldwide serving 80m customers a week, has become an agent of social and political change, Mr Schultz claimed.

"Two and a half years ago the [US] government shut down and we all saw a lack of leadership and an inconsistency," he said, referring to the partial government shutdown in October 2013 after the two houses of Congress failed to agree on a new budget.

"I found out that the families of fallen warriors [US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan] would not

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