Retail crime blights our High Streets
Your Labour parliamentary candidate Tom has launched a campaign calling on the Conservative Government to back stronger action on retail crime, which is blighting our town centre and high streets. Labour has committed to the following if we are elected to form a Government:
A ‘Community Policing Guarantee’, putting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on the streets in our communities.
To tackle retail crime by reversing the Conservatives’ decision to downgrade the response to shoplifting under £200, making it easier to take action against repeat offenders following record high levels of shoplifting over the past year, and ending the farce of offending impunity.
Tom Hayes, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Bournemouth East, said: “Retail crime has been a rising at a shocking rate across the UK, with a recent report from the Co-op Group highlighting that shoplifting and anti-social behaviour have jumped 35% year-on-year, with more than 175,000 incidents recorded in the first six months of 2023 – almost 1,000 incidents every day. At the same time, shopworkers are facing unacceptable levels of violence and abuse.
With 10,000 fewer neighbourhood police and PCOS on our streets since 2015, an increasing number of reported retail crimes are going unattended, leaving our town centres and high streets exposed and our communities paying the price.”
Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, said: “Under the Tories too many communities and high streets are being blighted by staggering increases in shoplifting, up 30 per cent in the last year alone.
The Conservative government has decimated neighbourhood policing, leaving our town centres unprotected, and introduced a rule meaning that shoplifting of goods under £200 doesn’t need to be investigated. This Tory ‘Shoplifter’s Charter’ has left local businesses and retail workers at the mercy of criminals.
Labour takes the safety of our High Streets seriously. We will scrap the £200 rule and roll out a new Community Police Guarantee, with more town centre police patrols and 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs.”