Criminals ‘systematically’ targeting UK shops, costing £400m last year, say retailers
Criminal gangs are “systematically” targeting shops, retailers have warned, with 5.5m incidents of shoplifting detected last year, costing the industry an estimated £400m.The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned over “endemic” violence towards shop workers – who faced an average 36 incidents of violence involving a weapon every day last year – and said high levels of theft was causing “anxiety” among retail staff.Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the BRC, called on police to consistently prioritise tackling retail crime and commit “dedicated resourcing” to the problem.The BRC research comes after the government put forward new legislation to back a stand-alone offence for assaulting a retail worker and to remove a £200 threshold for “low level” theft, which has a maximum six-month custodial sentence.
The measures form part of the crime and policing bill that is passing through parliament and is expected to be implemented this spring.Incidents of violence and abuse against shop workers fell by a fifth to 1,600 a day last financial year from 2,000 a day in 2023-24, with 13% of retailers rating the police response as good, or excellent, up from 9% a year before, according to the BRC’s annual survey of retailers on crime.However, the number of incidents remains the second highest on record and more than triple the 455 a day recorded before the Covid pandemic.The number of physical assaults was unchanged, at 118.Dickinson said: “Violence remains endemic.
No one should go to work fearing for their safety, and we must redouble our efforts to bring these numbers much further down once and for all.”She added that heavy investment by retailers in more security guards and gadgets such as facial recognition and security tags, as well as an improved response from the police in the past year, had cut violence and abuse against retail workers.Some experts argue that the rising cost of living, including the increasing price of basics such as baby formula and dairy products, and retailers’ efforts to cut labour costs by using technology such as self-checkouts have contributed to the problems.Joanne Thomas, the general secretary of the shop workers’ union Usdaw, said: “The drop in violence and abuse is welcome news, but both Usdaw and BRC data shows that retail workers continue to face unacceptable levels of violence and abuse simply as a result of going to work.“The 5.
5m incidents of shop theft are in no way a victimless crime, with Usdaw evidence showing that two-thirds of attacks on retail staff are being triggered by theft or armed robbery.Having to deal with repeated and persistent offences can cause issues beyond the theft itself, like anxiety.”The 5.5m incidents of recorded retail theft cannot be compared with prior years as the BRC survey has changed its methods in representing the data.It estimated the true number of incidents and cost of the crime could be much higher.
Dickinson welcomed the government’s promise to plough £7m over the next three years specifically into supporting an increase in the response to retail crime.The measures are part of a wider plan to improve local policing, with 13,000 additional neighbourhood and community support officers across England and Wales by 2029.However, she said: “Theft remains a huge issue, with an increasingly concerning link to organised criminal gangs, who continue to systematically target one store after another, stealing tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods in one go.“Retailers, the police and government must continue to work together, building on the great work done so far, focusing on consistent enforcement, better data and intelligence sharing, and targeted action against prolific offenders and organised gangs.“However, turning this into real impact requires sustained prioritisation and dedicated resourcing from police.
For the sake of the 3 million hard-working people in retail, this work must not stop.”
Keir Starmer opens investigation into Josh Simons over targeting of reporters
Keir Starmer has opened a formal investigation into a Cabinet Office minister involved in falsely accusing journalists of having links to pro-Russian propaganda.The prime minister’s decision follows revelations in the Guardian that Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour Together at the time, was also involved in telling British intelligence officials that another journalist was “living with” the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons’ team that the former adviser was “suspected of links to Russian intelligence”.The prime minister has asked his independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus, to examine Simons’ conduct. Magnus’s involvement was first reported by the Observer
The minister and the alleged smear campaign: key unanswered questions
The Cabinet Office minister at the centre of a growing scandal over an alleged smear campaign in which he falsely linked journalists to a “pro-Kremlin” network is facing mounting questions over the candour of his public statements.Josh Simons ran Labour Together, a thinktank that faced press scrutiny in November 2023 over £730,000 in undeclared political donations.Simons commissioned an American public affairs company, Apco, to investigate the sourcing of the story, which appeared in the Sunday Times. The story was based on documents obtained by the freelance journalist Paul Holden, which were due to feature in further stories published by an American journalist, Matt Taibbi.The Labour minister has conceded that Apco “never fully got to the bottom” of the sourcing of the story
Reform UK’s ICE-style deportation plan condemned as ‘sadistic’
Reform UK’s plan to create an ICE-style deportation agency has been condemned as “sadistic”, after the party’s home affairs spokesperson vowed to face down “progressive outrage”.Zia Yusuf, introduced as “the shadow home secretary” at a press conference in Dover, said mass deportations carried out by a planned UK Deportation Command would not trigger the same kind of violent showdowns seen in the US because “policing is done by consent” in the UK. He also described the number of migrants arriving in the country as an “invasion”.His remarks came as Reform set out plans to tackle immigration, including mass deportations, expanded surveillance powers and a ban on the conversion of churches into mosques.The party also wants to scrap indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and dedicated spouse visa
Martin Lewis ambushes Badenoch on Good Morning Britain over student loans plan
Kemi Badenoch has faced what could be described as the stuff of nightmares for a UK politician being interviewed about a personal finance policy: being ambushed and contradicted live on air by Martin Lewis.As the Conservative leader was being interviewed on ITV about her party’s plans to cut interest rates for some student loans, Lewis, a campaigner and finance expert, marched on to the set to announce that he completely disagreed.Ed Balls, who had been interviewing Badenoch for Good Morning Britain, had challenged her on whether the Tory plan would help only former students in the highest-paying jobs. After Badenoch insisted this was not the case, Lewis began shouting from off-set before walking into shot to side with Balls, eventually ending up sitting on the sofa.While Badenoch stuck to her view, polling shows that Lewis, who styles himself as a money-saving expert, is heavily trusted by much of the public on personal finance matters
Reform would create ICE-style agency and end leave to remain, Zia Yusuf to say
Reform UK would create an ICE-style agency dedicated to deporting hundreds of thousands of people, as well as terminating the status of those with indefinite leave to remain (ILR), the party will say.It would also ban the conversion of churches into mosques and fund a radical expansion of stop and search, the party’s new home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, will also say in a speech on Monday. The deradicalisation programme Prevent would also have its mandate redrawn to focus on Islamist extremism.Labour said the plans were divisive and showed that Reform was planning “to deport people who have followed the rules, worked hard and built their lives here – our friends, neighbours and colleagues”.The Labour party’s chair, Anna Turley, said the policies were “a direct attack on settled families and fundamentally un-British”
Labour must take drastic action to regain its standing | Letters
The plans set out by Larry Elliott certainly suggest a way forward for the Starmer government (If Keir Starmer is ousted, Labour could still win the next election. Here’s how that would work, 19 February). But politics and political approval also involve a balance sheet in which there has to be some recognition of the negative ways in which support had been lost. For many liberals, “old” Labour voters and sections of the left, Keir Starmer lost credibility on three issues: the relatively trivial one of “freebies”, and the much more substantive ones of benefit cuts for the most vulnerable and policies concerning Gaza.All the political choices taken in these contexts ignored values and ideals with long histories, not least of democratic commitment to the mitigation of the abuse of power and the needs of the most powerless
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