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Keir Starmer was accused of “brazen cheek” after claiming the ‘tide could be turning’ in Britain’s shoplifting epidemic.

The Prime Minister said “people can have their lives and livelihoods ruined by persistent shop theft”.

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp warned Labour’s radical sentencing proposals will lead to more shoplifters going free.

And the crisis was compounded by new research which revealed the epidemic is getting worse due to soaring numbers of reoffenders.

A staggering 67 per cent of shoplifting offenders go on to commit another offence within 12 months, the Centre for Social Justice said. This compares to 55 per cent before the pandemic.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp declared: “Keir Starmer has a brazen cheek – he’s part of the problem, not the solution.

“Shoplifting is up 8% under Labour, made worse by a drop in total police numbers of 1,300 in the last year alone.

“Starmer is abolishing prison sentences under year which means virtually no shoplifter will ever go to prison.

“The Conservative plan to Take Back our Streets will see 10,000 extra police hotspot patrol high crime areas, combined with a tripling of stop and search and widespread use of live facial recognition to catch wanted criminals.

“Only the Conservatives have a plan to fix this.”

Labour’s sentencing plans have sparked fury, with around 40,000 criminals set to avoid jail altogether, while many convicts will be let out after spending just a third of their term in prison.

And those sentenced to four years or more will be let out after only serving 50% of their sentence behind bars.

The vast majority of offenders who would have previously been jailed for up to 12 months will be given community orders or suspended sentences, under the Government’s plan.

The average number of offences committed by career criminals has nearly doubled in five years, the CSJ said.

In total, convicted shoplifters were responsible for over 131,000 further offences in the most recent data (2023-24) – up 66 per cent on the previous year.

The Prime Minister claimed shop thefts were “slightly down” as he demanded wider use of technology which allows CCTV footage to be shared immediately with the police.

In an address to the Usdaw shopworkers’ union, Sir Keir said: “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 shoplifters’ 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.”

Sir Keir said he was “not blind to how big this challenge is” but said the number of people charged had gone up 17% in the latest statistics and shop theft was down.

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.

Sir Keir said: “It’s only slightly down, but the tide could be turning.”

Joanne Thomas, Usdaw general secretary, said the incoming legislation delivers “much-needed protection of retail workers’ law”.

She said: “While there has been a welcome small decrease in shoplifting across last year, the fact is retail crime continues to be a significant issue for the sector and particularly staff.

“Usdaw’s last survey found that this is in no way a victimless crime, with two-thirds of attacks on retail staff being triggered by theft or armed robbery.

“Having to deal with repeated and persistent offences can cause issues beyond the theft itself, like anxiety, fear and physical harm to retail workers.”