Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan has backed Labour plans to protect shopworkers with tough new measures today amid a ‘horrifying’ rise in violent attacks last year under the previous government.
Mr Morgan made the comments during Respect for Shop Workers Week and following a recent survey from the Usdaw union which showed nearly a fifth of retail staff suffered a violent attack last year – up from eight per cent in 2022. Nearly half also reported they had been threatened with violence.
Mr Morgan has been campaigning for better protections for shopworkers in Portsmouth and working with USDAW the shopworkers union to discuss experiences on the frontline of this surge in shoplifting and violence.
The city MP has taken a range of actions to lobby for action to tackle shoplifting, as well as raising concerns in Parliament, meeting with local police and retailers, and campaigning for more bobbies on the beat.
New action being introduced by the Labour government to reverse the wave of violence on shopworkers, including:
- A reversal of the Conservatives’ Shoplifters’ Charter: a rule introduced in 2014 brought in a new category of ‘low-value shoplifting’ to describe the theft of goods worth under £200, meaning the police would not routinely investigate crimes below this threshold. Figures show the Tory law has seen a 29 per cent record spike in shoplifting incidents (nearly 1,300 per day) while just 17 per cent of shoplifters are being charged for their crime – meaning perpetrators are getting away with it.
- Millions of pounds of new money to tackle retail crime: the government announced in the Budget that new money will be invested in prevention, training the police and retailers on specific retail crime tactics to stop crime before it happens. An extra £5 million will be invested over three years to crack down on organised shoplifting gangs, funding a specialist analysis team within the National Policing Unit for serious Organised Acquisitive Crime. That project is already making an impact with 152 prolific people involved in organised retail crime identified in its first three months. An additional £2 million over three years will also be spent in the National Business Crime Centre, providing a vital resource for both police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime.
- Tougher action against criminals that assault retail workers: Labour will legislate for assaults against retail workers a new stand-alone offence, as it has called for over the last decade. The change is supported by Usdaw union through its ‘Freedom from Fear’ campaign. The Policing Minister is expected to say: “There is no place for anyone who abuses shopworkers, and we are changing the law to come after you”.
- 13,000 additional neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on the street and a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee: to reverse the collapse in the number of bobbies on the beat under the Tories, the Labour government will put policing back into town centres, high streets, and communities. It will restore guaranteed patrols in retail crime hotspots and mean shopkeepers and retail staff have a named officer to turn to when nuisance comes calling.
Commenting, Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said:
“For too long shopworkers in Portsmouth have to put up with a terrible increase in shoplifting and incidents of violence and abuse.
“That’s why what the new Labour government is doing is so important. We will reverse the wave of violence on shopworkers through a raft of new measures including binning the effective immunity for some shoplifting.
“The recruitment of thousands of additional neighbourhood police and PCSOs will also mean retail staff have a named officer to turn to when nuisance comes calling.”
In setting out the government’s choice to reverse the damage done by the Tories, Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention, Diana Johnson said:
“We know that this work is hard. After more than a decade of Conservative rule, our high streets and town centres have been hollowed-out. Ordinary people have lost the trust – abandoned hope – that the police will come when they were called, that the culprit will be caught, that they will see justice.
“Retail workers have been on the front line. They’ve seen the record high levels of shoplifting with their own eyes. They’ve faced the wave of abuse, threats, and violence. It must stop.
“The era of criminals acting with impunity, built up through years of Tory rule, is over. This is a government committed to our mission for safer streets, for safer communities, and for a safer Britain, and we have a plan to get there.”
Read more about Respect for Shop Workers Week here.
