The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has welcomed the Labour Party’s recent stance on retail crime, where it pledged to investigate all shoplifting cases no matter the size.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper declared at the Labour Party convention that the party would abandon the £ 200 rule on stealing in order to reduce crime.
A legislative change in 2014 made it so that anyone accused with theft of articles worth less than £ 200 did not have to appear in court.
Cooper said, “We will stand with USDAW [Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers], with the Coop, with Tesco, with our convenience stores, with retailers and shopworkers across the country, with a new law and tougher sentences for attacks on our shopworkers because everyone has the right to feel safe at work”.
Backing the pledge, BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said, “We welcome the Labour Party and the shadow home secretary’s commitment to introduce a new law to protect retail workers from violence and abuse”.
Cooper also promised to make assaulting a shop worker a crime, with offenders facing up to two years in prison if convicted. In an open letter last month, businesses urged police to examine all accusations of intimidation and assault.
