Starmer pledges crackdown on shoplifting in speech to retail workers

Keir Starmer at USDAW conference

Sir Keir Starmer has promised retail workers he will crack down on crime and reverse what he called a Tory “Shoplifter’s Charter” in a speech.

The Labour leader spoke at retail union Usdaw’s conference in Blackpool, where voters are due to go to the polls in a by-election later this week.

In the speech on Tuesday afternoon, he pledged to reverse a policy that means shoplifting of goods under £200 is not investigated.

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.

“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.”

Members of the audience stood and applauded following his comments.

Figures released last week showed the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales had risen to the highest level in 20 years.

Labour said analysis of Home Office statistics showed almost a quarter of a million shoplifting cases were closed without a suspect being found, or because further action was considered not in the public interest.

Sir Keir said: “Nobody in Britain should be in any doubt about the scale of the crime wave on our high streets at the moment. The epidemic levels of shoplifting and the persistent plague of antisocial behaviour.”

He said some people described those types of crimes as “petty” and “low-level”.

Sir Keir 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 praised the union’s Freedom from Fear campaign, which aims to prevent violence and abuse towards shopworkers.

In the speech, at the seaside resort’s Winter Gardens, he promised the “biggest levelling-up” of workers’ rights for “a generation”, and committed to rejuvenating high streets.

He told the conference: “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.”

Labour is hoping for 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.

Forecasts for local elections taking place across the country on the same day suggest the Conservatives could lose up to half of the council seats they are defending.

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