Diana Johnson speech at the Co-operative Party’s Retail Crime Summit

It's a real privilege to be here today, talking about this vitally important issue.

And it is a pleasure to be at the invitation of the Co-op Party, of which of course I am a member, a movement which has always been at Labour's side, and now has over 40 of my fellow MPs representing its co-operative values in Parliament.

The Co-op movement knows that retail crime cuts right to the heart of our communities, and affects both retailers and their staff, who are forced to endure an all-too-high level of criminality and abuse.

I want to recognise the campaigning that the Co-op do on this issue. And I want to pay tribute to it.

Earlier this year, in the first Labour King's speech in 14 years, we committed to introducing a Crime and Policing Bill. 

How good it was to listen to the King outline the steps that a Labour government will take to improve the lives of working people?

This Labour Government knows that the twin values of security and justice are the basis for strong communities.

The fabric of those communities was corroded by a Tory Government fundamentally uninterested in tackling the challenges that face ordinary people.

Rising crime has driven people away from our town centres and our high streets.

But this Labour government will reclaim our streets from the gangs, the thugs and the thieves.

We will bring in new powers on antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and off-road bikes and we will put neighbourhood police back in our communities and back on the beat.

And will end the shameful neglect of shoplifting, which reached epidemic levels under the Conservatives.

Shopworkers are the unsung heroes of every high street, town centre and village shop. And as we saw during the Covid pandemic how vital shop workers are, working to put food on our tables and keep goods in our shops and homes.

Their work keeps our country moving, eating, and living.

Retail violence affects hardworking people, including teenagers in their first jobs and those looking for part-time work.

All shop workers deserve dignity and respect, and the freedom to work without the fear of assault and that is what we will deliver.

After years of Co-op and Usdaw campaigning, this Labour Government will introduce a new law on assaults on shopworkers, because everyone has the right to work free from fear. And as you all know, it is a long overdue change.

I want to pay tribute to both the Co-op and Usdaw for their commitment to this cause on behalf of their members. The credit for the political consensus on this issue is theirs.

They know more than anyone why this is such a pressing issue.

Usdaw recently surveyed over 5,500 retail staff, with horrifying results. 18 per cent of shop workers suffered a violent attack last year, up from just 8 per cent in 2022. And 46 per cent reported threats of violence.

Usdaw's survey reveals shopworkers being spat on, sworn at, and even attacked with a machete.

This is the shocking reality of being a shopworker in 21^st century Britain.

Just last week I met with a shop worker in my own constituency who sent me CCTV footage of him being punched 50 times by a customer he was trying to help.

Labour have been calling for tougher action against those who assault shop workers for more than a decade. 

We included specific offence in our manifesto in 2015 and, this year, it was included again too. We promised it then, and we're delivering it now.

Conservative ministers originally didn't think a stand-alone offence was “required” before U-turning to support the standalone offence. But we have been consistent: will not tolerate those crimes.

I say, to retail workers, we will back you and we will protect you. There is no place for anyone who abuses shopworkers, and we are changing the law to come after you.

But we won't stop there. As we have promised, we will scrap the Conservatives' ‘shoplifters charter'.

That rule, introduced in 2014, introduced a new category of ‘low-value shoplifting' to describe the theft of goods worth under £200.

The police deprioritised enforcement – even in repeat cases or organised shoplifting.

But it is simply not right to leave businesses and retail workers at the mercy of criminals.

We will therefore remove the £200 threshold and treat shoplifting with the seriousness that it deserves, ending the shameful neglect of shoplifting over the last ten years.

Now we know this is not a quick fix. 

The blame for this unacceptable state of affairs falls at the feet of the last Conservative government who were in power for 14 years.

And as the British Retail Consortium's crime survey revealed that the cost of theft to retailers reached a shocking record high of £1.8 billion.

And the latest figures show that the number of shoplifting incidents increased by nearly 30 per cent last year to nearly 1300 offences a day – another record.  

This was on the Conservatives' watch, more criminals were getting away with it too.

When they left office, just 18 per cent of shoplifting incidents ended in a charge. In 2016, that number was over 30 per cent.

This is a Tory Party that allowed more criminals to act with impunity, and forced businesses pay the price. I want you to cast your mind back just over a year.

Chris Philp was the Conservative policing minister. Like me, he had the privilege of holding the best job in Government.

But his bright idea? His solution to a shoplifting epidemic that was occurring on his watch? Citizens arrests.

He urged members of the public to “have a go” when they saw thieves stealing goods, DIY policing. A statement that is so deeply irresponsible that it's almost laughable. That's how bad it got.

But it gets worse. Chris Philp is now the Shadow Home Secretary in Kemi Badenoch's Conservative top team.

At the general election the British people sent a clear message to the Tories. After 14 years of failure, they'd had enough. But the promotion of Chris Philp shows they haven't listened. It's the move of a Tory Party in denial, blind to the legacy of their 14 years in office and indifferent to the chaos they left behind.

I want to look to the future and say a few words about neighbourhood policing.

It is my mission – the mission of this government – to rebuild neighbourhood policing in our communities.

Neighbourhood policing is the bedrock of our system. It's enshrined in the Peelian principles.

The police are the people and the people are the police. We are rightly proud of that democratic way of doing policing.

But let's be really frank that after 14 years of Conservative rule they have decimated that model.

We have thousands fewer police officers and PCSOs on the streets than a decade ago.

The Conservatives halved the number of PCSOs and cut special constables by two-thirds.

I've got the numbers. I can rattle them off. But I don't really need to. The public know it. They feel it.

I hear it from my constituents, time and time again. That sense that the police have vanished from their high streets, aren't there when you really need them.

We are going to put 13,000 neighbourhood officers and PCSOs back on our streets, with a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to restore patrols to town centres.

Communities and residents will have a named officer to turn to. And we're putting our money where our mouth is.

Rachel Reeves' budget – the first delivered by a Labour Chancellor in 14 years.

We're on track to deliver our manifesto pledge and boost police numbers by 13,000. But there's more.

Because the Treasury has also announced we're investing in prevention, training the police and retailers on specific retail crime tactics to stop crime before it happens.

And we're giving an extra £5 million 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 - Opal - is already making an impact. In its first three months, it identified 152 prolific people involved in organised retail crime, and under Labour that work will continue.

And we will invest £2 million over three years 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.

These investments are a clear signal that this Labour Government takes retail crime and shoplifting with the seriousness it deserves.

And we know we have to work together. We will continue to improve how retailers and the police share intelligence.

That the solutions to these problems can be found more swiftly and with greater clarity through intelligence sharing.

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. And 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.

With a new offence of assault of a shopworker, investment from the Treasury, by scrapping the Conservatives' shoplifters charter, and by putting neighbourhood police officers back in our communities, back on the beat, and back in the service of the public once again.

The hard work of change is beginning.