The Labour leader said his party would ‘put shoplifters on notice’ as he addressed the retail union Usdaw’s conference in Blackpool, which is due to host a by-election this week
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to retail workers that he will get tough on crime and overturn the so-called Tory “Shoplifter’s Charter” during a speech at the Usdaw conference in Blackpool, ahead of the upcoming by-election.
Addressing the union members on Tuesday afternoon, the Labour leader committed to scrapping the current policy which sees shoplifting offences involving goods valued under £200 often not pursued by police.
In his address, Sir Keir said: “Today I am putting shoplifters on notice. You might get away with it under this weak Tory Government. “But if Labour takes power, we won’t stand by while crime takes over our streets. We’ll put 13,000 extra neighbourhood police on the beat, tackling crime on your streets.”
The Labour chief also pledged to abolish the controversial £200 threshold that hinders police from probing thefts in shops. He continued: “We’ll scrap the Shoplifter’s Charter the £200 rule that stops the police investigating theft in your workplace. And we will legislate to make sure assaulting and abusing shopworkers is a standalone criminal offence because you deserve to feel safe at work.”
His remarks were met with a standing ovation from those gathered. This commitment comes as recent statistics reveal that shoplifting incidents reported to the police in England and Wales have soared to a two-decade high.
Of the 408,690 shoplifting offences registered by the police in England and Wales during 2023 that had an outcome defined, a small portion of 16% (65,521) were charged or summoned, whilst a staggering 58% (238,794) of investigations concluded with no suspect identified, as per an analysis by PA news agency of Home Office data. The figures for 2022 showed a similar trend, with 15% charged or summoned cases and 55% with unidentifiable suspects.
Speaking on the matter, Sir Keir asserted: “Nobody in Britain should be in any doubt about the scale of the crimewave on our high streets at the moment the epidemic levels of shoplifting and the persistent plague of antisocial behaviour.”
He pointed out that these types of crimes are often referred to as “petty” and “low-level”. He added: “Perhaps it is for them. But they don’t work in your shop. They don’t walk in your shoes. They don’t see the damage this does to your community.”
The former Director of Public Prosecutions commended the union’s Freedom From Fear campaign, which seeks to combat violence and harassment against shopworkers. While addressing the crowd at Winter Gardens, the seaside resort, he pledged the “biggest levelling up” of workers’ rights seen for “a generation”, committing to revitalisation of the high street.
He said: “I’m not here to tell you everything will be easy if Labour is elected. It won’t be. There’s no easy path out of the hole the Tories have dug for our country. And don’t make the mistake of thinking they’ve given up either, or that they can’t win.”
“That’s not how this works politics in our times is volatile. And when it comes to saving their own skin, that is a cause, perhaps the only cause, they will never stop fighting for. So we need to be disciplined, focused, meet their attacks with the credible hope of a long-term plan.”
The Labour Party is expecting a victory in the Blackpool South by-election on Thursday, which was called after Conservative MP Scott Benton resigned in the wake of a lobbying scandal.
Polls suggest that the Conservatives could lose up to half of the council seats they are defending in local elections that will also take place on the same day. When asked if he would prefer a Labour victory in the upcoming general election or for Arsenal to win the Premier League, Sir Keir joked that he would “like to go for the double, obviously”, before stating: “It’s got to be a Labour victory.”