Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says Labour would crackdown on shoplifting and violence against shopworkers.
In a speech to the Labour Party Conference, Cooper said that a Labour government would introduce legislation on “tough new sentencing for assaults on retail workers”.
Highlighting issues facing those working in retail across the UK, the shadow home secretary also committed to ending the £200 threshold stigma surrounding theft, improving police presence by hiring 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs and bringing in orders that would bar repeat offenders from town centres.
In her address, Cooper said: “We will stand with Usdaw, with the Co-op, with Tesco, with our convenience stores, with retailers and shopworkers across the country, with a new law and tougher sentences for attacks on our shopworkers because everyone has the right to feel safe at work.”
Responding, NFRN’s National President Muntazir Dipoti, said: “We have campaigned for years for action to be taken against shop crime. With violence and abuse against retail staff and shop crime incidents continuing to rise, we welcome these commitments by the Labour Party to bring effective change to this issue.”
ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “Effective penalties are a vital part of tackling retail crime, and something we have long campaigned for. To get to the point where courts are actually in a position to use these penalties, we need the police to investigate every incident and pursue those who abuse and intimidate shopworkers and retailers.”
Responding to the speech, Usdaw General Secretary Paddy Lillis, said: “We need a government to take the issue of retail crime seriously, not by suggesting citizens’ arrests or ignoring the problem, but by taking positive steps and actions which have broad consensus across the industry. Only Labour has the policies to tackle the crime that blights retail and our communities.”
