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A supermarket security guard has said the Prime Minister needs to “get tougher” to combat shoplifting in the UK. Kane Manning, 28, is stationed at a national-brand supermarket in Brighton, which he did not wish to name. He has worked as a guard for two-and-a-half years, and said that incidents of theft have risen by between 70% and 80% during that time. Mr Manning added that current advice from the firm he works for restricts him to approaching and “challenging” suspected thieves, which he has done up to 100 times.

Mr Manning said: “In my opinion, the justice for shoplifters isn’t good. I take it personally.” He told Sir Keir Starmer: “Get tougher with justice on shoplifters, so they think twice about doing it again, because I keep seeing reoffenders all the time, and fund more in police, so they patrol more in risky areas where shoplifting has happened.”

People cannot afford food, and so turn to stealing, Mr Manning said, adding that he sees a lot of addicts steal in order to fund their drug habit. Homeless people also lift, the security worker said.

“Basically, I was told to act as a deterrent and challenge them. When you spot a shoplifter, you approach, you challenge them, you say, ‘You have not paid for your stuff.’

“You want to de-escalate the situation.”

Challenging an individual is not done physically, Mr Manning noted, as he is instructed to keep his distance and “let them know” what they’re doing. But he would like to go further.

“I’d like to get more involved, 100%,” he said. “When I approach them, I try to stop them from leaving, not physically.”

“Look, they’ve committed a crime, so I’m going to try my best to get the stuff back, and it works. When you challenge them, when you approach them, they drop the bags on the floor.”

Police only attend around 20% of incidents, Mr Manning claimed.

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed shoplifting offences fell slightly last year, down from 516,611 in 2024 to 509,566 in 2025.

But a think tank highlighted figures showing 67% of offenders go on to commit another offence within 12 months, up from 55% before the pandemic.

On Monday, Sir Keir said in a speech to the Usdaw shopworkers’ union: “It’s disgraceful that people just working in their shop have to take abuse from customers.

“It’s disgraceful that people feel sick to the stomach thinking about how they’re going to get through the day, and it’s disgraceful that people can have their lives and livelihoods ruined by persistent shop theft.”

He said the Government has put an extra 3,000 neighbourhood police officers on the streets and scrapped the “ridiculous” rule which left theft of goods worth less than £200 “not properly investigated” by police.

“That was a shoplifter’s charter, and we’ve ended it and not before time,” he said.

“We’ve toughened up punishment, too. We’re giving police stronger powers, making the abuse and assault of retail workers a specific crime and giving you the same protections as emergency workers.”