Labour warned that crackdown on shoplifters risks 'criminalising' poverty: 'Some are out of options'

The government’s proposed crackdown on ‘low-value’ shoplifting offences risks “criminalising” poverty, campaigners have warned – and driving vulnerable people further into destitution.

On the general election campaign trail, Big Issue asked Keir Starmer what he’d do if he hypothetically saw a desperate parent stealing baby formula from a supermarket. He proudly told us that he’d take out his waller and “offer to pay for it”.

“The desperation of families around the country should make the Tories feel nothing but shame,” he quipped.

But his government, it seems, will adopt a more punitive approach.

Labour has unveiled a new crime bill targeting people who steal goods worth less than £200. The law – introduced in Wednesday’s (17 July) King’s Speech – will reverse 2014 legislation that subjected such offences to less serious punishment. It is not yet clear what the new penalties will entail.  

As the cost of living crisis bites, shoplifting has surged to the highest level on record. A total of 430,104 offences were recorded by police in the 12 months to December 2023, up by more than a third (37%) on the preceding year. The Big Issue has reported about children as young as seven taking food from shops because they are hungry.

Amid widespread destitution, “tabloid pleasing headlines” about cracking down on low-level shoplifting will not “address or understand the reasons why some people are shoplifting in the first place”, said Dan White from Disability Rights UK.

“We understand that not all those who resort to shoplifting do so out of desperation, and we do not condone it, but the fact is a proportion do so and are no doubt ashamed they have been driven to it,” he said.

“Thousands of people in are still poverty including disabled people and carers and they are still struggling to make ends meet due to the lowest benefits in Europe, low incomes, high energy costs, food inflation and rising rents and mortgages – and after years into this crisis, some are out of options to survive.”

“Labour politicians need to pause and understand the symptoms of why some people are resorting to desperate measures, they need to focus on cause and effect, look at the root causes and tackle the deep inequalities within our society. It’s too easy to focus on individual cases, when it is highly likely that deepening poverty is fuelling most of the low-level shoplifting.”

The government will also make assaulting a shop worker a specific offence.

Retail staff should “never feel unsafe at work”, said Jodie Beck, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty. However, “policing and prosecution cannot always be seen as the answer” to questions of deprivation.

“No one should be criminalised for being in poverty. There is already extensive legislation to tackle shoplifting and protect retail staff,” she said.

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“Instead of adding yet more measures to the statute books, the government should be tackling meaningful steps to address poverty which leads to people being pushed into the desperate situation of not paying for the items they urgently need to survive.”

Conversely, the British Retail Consortium has blamed emboldened criminal gangs for the surge in theft, and have called for harsher sentences.

“We welcome the bill’s introduction of stronger measures to tackle shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. This is a timely intervention at a time when retail crime is costing retailers and their customers £3.3bn a year,” a spokesperson said after the Kings Speech.

“It is vital that action is taken before the scourge of retail crime gets any worse,” Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, previously argued.

The BRC claims that theft drives prices up for everyone. Shoplifting cost retailers £1.8bn in the last year.

But for individuals stealing as an act-of-last resort, harsher sentences are unlikely to prove much of a deterrent, a food bank manager told the Big Issue last year.

“Being harsh on people isn’t going to solve any problems,” Charlotte White, previously manager of Earlsfield Foodbank in London, said.

“It’s only going to add to the shame they feel. These are people who are so desperate that it’s not going to make a difference. We need to go much further up the chain to understand why it’s happening and give them support.”

Imposing tough new rules will simply worsen the strain on Britain’s prison system, Beck said today.

“Our government cannot be standing up to say they are addressing the overburdened criminal justice system and at-capacity prisons in the same breath as criminalising more people,” she said.

“We call on this moment to be a reset, to work with communities and listen to affected people to address the problems which are leading to a rise in shoplifting.”

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