PM's new crackdown on retail crime 'free-for-all'

SIR Keir Starmer will say he is calling time on the shop theft “free-for-all” as he sets out efforts to crack down on retail crime.

- 

The Prime Minister will tout his administration's boost to neighbourhood police and punishments for shoplifters, as well as efforts to protect shop workers from violence with a specific criminal offence.

In a pledge today, Sir Keir is expected to say: “Working people - grafters - go to work, do the right thing, keep our high streets thriving and yet too often they are abused or assaulted by people who think they can get away with it and just cheat the system. It’s disgraceful.”

He will say his Government has put an extra 3,000 neighbourhood police officers on the streets and scrapped the effective immunity for thieves stealing goods worth less than £200.

“That was a shoplifters’ charter, and we've ended it.