When I was a young girl, helping out behind the counter of my parents’ corner shop after school, my father taught me how to guard against till-snatchers. We had an old-fashioned cash register, one with buttons and a tray that sprang open at the base – a proper Open All Hours cash till. My father knew from bitter experience how easy it was for a thief to reach over, grab a fistful of notes and run. He showed me how to make that more difficult for criminals, by opening the tray just halfway and closing it quickly.
Attacks on Britain’s shops have been a longstanding problem, as my family knows from personal experience. But today, thanks to a tidal wave of shoplifting and the involvement of organised crime, it has hit crisis levels. And at the very same time, however, the justice system seems on the verge of giving up the fight altogether, with shoplifting too often ignored by police and simply dismissed by the courts.
This should be news to no one – we’ve all seen it with our own eyes. Two years ago, Guy Adams filed a damning special report for this newspaper detailing how gangs ransack stores with impunity every day, with the police doing little or nothing at all in response – even when handed clear evidence. Yet still nothing is done. Thieves are becoming more brazen every day. They walk into stores and sweep the contents of entire shelves into their bags. If security guards or shop staff dare to intervene, the spectre of violence rapidly looms.
Shoplifting is no longer a crime committed by unruly groups of schoolchildren, daring each other to pocket a bag of sweets or a bottle of fizzy drink. It’s done to order, by people who arrive with their faces covered and proceed to fill a hold-all. Beyond the shop doors, the stolen goods are then sold openly – and apparently with no fear of consequence – in pubs, at car boot sales, in disreputable stores and via online trading sites.
The chief executive of Marks and Spencer, Stuart Machin, said this month that retail crime has become ‘more brazen, more organised and more aggressive’. Last February, the shop workers’ union USDAW cited evidence that ‘two-thirds of attacks on retail staff are being triggered by theft or armed robbery’. Yet any member of staff who bravely try to intervene can find themselves penalised. Earlier this month, a 54-year-old Waitrose worker named Walker Smith tried to prevent a thief from leaving a store in south London with a basket full of Lindt chocolate Easter eggs. He paid for his courage with his job – though I’m pleased to know that another retailer, Iceland, quickly offered him another role.
And yet it is only now, with his career as Prime Minister in the deepest trouble, that Keir Starmer admitted shoplifting has become a criminal ‘free-for-all’. Yesterday, he announced new measures including the abolition of the rule that all but decriminalises the theft of goods totalling less than £200. Yes, Starmer is right to say the current situation is ‘disgraceful’. But why has he sat on his hands for so long?
Our PM is all talk and no action – and everyone knows it. Criminal gangs will take no notice, because they regard him as weak and feeble. Not only does Labour have a woeful record on law and order, I believe Starmer’s Government is empowering organised crime. As a former home secretary, I know that every time the Conservatives put forward legislation to crack down on crime, the Left voted against it.
Far from getting tougher, one of Labour’s first actions as a government in 2024 was to introduce the early release scheme, which within nine months saw 38,000 prisoners set free after serving less than half their sentences. It’s against this feeble background that retail theft has been increasing so dramatically. In the year to September 2025, shoplifting offences increased by 5 per cent across England and Wales – from 492,660 cases to 519,381. And those, of course, are only the thefts that are actually reported. Many more go unreported or unseen.
The same applies to this government’s abysmal record on violent and abusive attacks on retail staff. Between August 2024 and 2025, police responded to just 31 per cent of incidents of abuse, threats and physical assaults on shop workers, according to the British Retail Consortium. Sir Keir announced laws yesterday that will make it a specific offence to assault shop workers. But how can staff or the public have any confidence in his promises, when we’ve seen mass looting in Clapham, for example, treated as barely more than youthful high jinks?
My family has been on the front line as this crime wave steadily worsened. My dad was among the first generation of Asians who arrived from East Africa in the 1970s. With my mum, he ran corner shops and convenience stores for decades, as did my aunties and uncles. Some of my cousins and their children are still in the business. The talk in our house was constantly about how to combat theft and verbal abuse. My own ‘zero tolerance’ attitude to crime was shaped behind that counter.
It’s exhausting to go downstairs to the shop before dawn to discover for the umpteenth time burglars have forced their way in and taken thousands of pounds worth of stock, chiefly cigarettes and alcohol which are easily sold on the black market. Various members of my family tried all sorts of deterrents, from alarms and iron bars to getting a guard dog. The impact of these break-ins is widely underestimated, because people assume that insurance will cover the losses. But we all end up paying, as higher premiums mean higher prices. Far too many people are complicit, buying cheap goods from dodgy dealers when it’s obvious the items are stolen.
It’s all part of the way crime is becoming an accepted part of society. Many people attempt to justify it by blaming the cost of living. But that’s sheer hypocrisy, because theft is one of the causes driving up the costs. Losses to shoplifting can be completely debilitating. Thefts are not always covered by insurance. I’ve seen my father close his shop after working 14 hours or more, and be close to tears because any profits for the day have been wiped out by thieves.
As my parents get older, I’ve become increasingly concerned for their safety. Newspaper reports of attacks on shopkeepers, by raiders armed with knives and machetes, have become ever-more frequent. After a spate of shoplifting at their store in Ipswich, accompanied by verbal abuse, I pleaded with them to sell the shop and retire. Reluctantly, they agreed. It’s a shocking situation, when a couple who have run a business all their lives no longer feel they can do so in safety. Britain should be better than that.
I know from my work as an MP that my family’s experience is now the dreadful norm. The pressures are worse than ever, the threats more aggressive, the challenges mounting. For those facing the shoplifters every day, it can be terrifying. Our small shops are a reflection of our society. Corner businesses like the ones where I grew up now bristle with security cameras, with Perspex shields across the counters and alcohol locked away behind barred shutters. High Street shelves once stacked with beauty and bathroom products are now empty, because anything left out on display is liable to be stolen. Meanwhile, the criminal justice system shrugs and looks away. It isn’t right. And it cannot go on.
