GB News presenter Ellie Costello has confronted the Labour policing minister over the surge in retail crime, demanding urgent action.
Ellie challenged Dame Diana Johnson over “absolutely outrageous” figures from the British Retail Consortium showing 2,000 daily shoplifting incidents and a 50 per cent rise in violence against shop workers.
The confrontation comes as new figures reveal shoplifting has reached its highest level since records began in 2003, with nearly half a million offences recorded in England and Wales.
Ellie Costello said: “It comes from the annual crime survey from from the British Retail Consortium this week, 2000 incidents of shoplifting every single day, violence against shop workers rising by 50 per cent.
Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson acknowledged the figures “remain unacceptably high”
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“This is absolutely outrageous that this is taking place. What’s going to be done to tackle this? We need more than just more police officers on the streets. We need the threat of consequence for these shoplifters.”
Responding to the crisis, Johnson acknowledged the figures “remain unacceptably high” and said these crimes were “blighting town centres and high streets right across the country”.
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Johnson explained: “It’s about increasing the police numbers, but it’s also about giving the powers to the police to deal with this.
“So we’ve said already that we will be introducing a specific offence around attacks and assaults on retail workers because they have a special place carrying out a public duty in terms of, for example, alcohol sales, they have to check the age of people. But you’re absolutely right.
“We’re also saying as well that we’re going to get rid of this £200 limit, where if you steal goods up to £200, it’s like it’s likely no further action will be taken against you. We want to recognise if you steal from a shop, if it’s your corner shop or if it’s one of the big supermarkets, theft is theft.
“There should well be consequences for the actions that we’ve seen. And we know as well that serious organised gangs are now involved in some of this shop theft, and that’s millions and millions of pounds that shops are losing.
Number of reported shoplifting crimes have reached the highest level since records began in 2003
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“So there’s work ongoing, bringing retailers and the police together to use the intelligence about how these serious criminals are actually targeting the retail sector, and what more we can do to prevent that.”
A total of 492,914 shoplifting offences were logged by police forces in the year to September 2024, marking a 23 per cent increase from 402,220 in the previous 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The figure represents the highest total since current records began in March 2003.
Police recorded 1.8 million theft offences overall in the year to September, showing a two per cent increase primarily driven by shoplifting.
Crimes involving theft from a person also saw a significant rise of 22%, reaching 146,109 incidents
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Crimes involving theft from a person also saw a significant rise of 22 per cent, reaching 146,109 incidents.
Home Office data reveals that of the 473,342 police-recorded shoplifting offences, only 19 per cent resulted in a court summons.
The British Retail Consortium has warned that shoplifting is “spiralling out of control,” with staff facing assault, weapons threats, and racial and sexual abuse.