Policing minister 'shocked' over brazen shoplifting in Hull
Dame Diana said the recent surge in shoplifting was "unacceptable", and insisted the government was "clamping down" on thefts.As part of its Safer Streets campaign, the government said it planned to assign named local officers to neighbourhoods and increase police ranks by 13,000 by 2029.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said police forces will recruit 3,000 extra neighbourhood officers and PCSOs over the next 12 months in an attempt to end the policing "postcode lottery".But Dame Diana stressed that retailers also had a role to play by increasing shop security and making sure goods were not left easily accessible to thieves.Due to increases in assaults against shop workers, the Crime and Policing Bill proposes a new offence of assaulting a shop worker.The Conservatives criticised Labour's plans and claimed the government was "leaving communities at the mercy of criminal gangs".Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: "The government likes to talk tough, but the reality is they are releasing criminals in our communities whilst failing to grip the border crisis."[The Labour] announcement comes without a single extra pound of new funding whilst they are actually cutting 1,300 officers."
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
British Transport Police cuts will endanger railway staff, union warns
The biggest rail workers' union is warning of cuts to the British Transport Police (BTP), saying they would 'seriously endanger' the safety of railway staff. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said the BTP was facing an £8.5 million funding shortfall this year which it warned could result in the closure of 13 police stations and the loss of hundreds of posts. The union said cuts would leave frontline rail staff exposed to rising levels of violence, harassment and anti-social behaviour. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: 'These cuts will severely impact the safety of rail workers and the travelling public. 'Station staff and train crews are being left to deal with violent and abusive passengers without adequate BTP support, often late at night, in isolated locations, and with no back-up. 'BTP's own figures show a sharp rise in crime across the network yet the response is to slash officer numbers, close stations and disband the very unit that dealt with workplace violence. It is both outrageous and dangerous.' RMT has launched a campaign to demand better protection for rail workers and safer travelling for passengers.
Daily Mail
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Moment sweet-toothed shoplifter pinches handfuls of chocolate in front of shocked staff and customers at a Sainsbury's
This is the moment a sweet-toothed shoplifter pinched handfuls of chocolate in front of shocked staff and customers at a Sainsbury's. The stunningly brazen theft happened at a branch of the supermarket chain at a petrol station in the Hayes area of west London, on Friday, August 8. Dramatic footage filmed by an onlooker shows the man swiping what appears to be family bags of chocolates from the shelves to fill up a Waitrose carrier bag. The dark-haired, bearded man looks completely unassuming upon first entering the quiet store, in a green bomber jacket, jeans and sports trainers. He appears to be holding a screwed up shopping bag, just like any other customer - but after unfolding it, he begins his astonishing crime in broad daylight. The man soon clears the top shelf of a display near the front of the shop with amazing calmness, grabbing handfuls of goodies at a time. He goes to leave - but, seemingly assessing the room left in his bag, comes back for more, as amazed staff and customers watch on, completely taken aback. The thief soon grasps fistfuls of Magic Stars, Maltesers and Galaxy share bags from the next shelf down to add to his haul. The shoplifter appears to be a repeat offender - as a member of staff can be heard shouting at him: 'You're trespassing, you're banned from the store! 'You keep coming in and you're banned!' But the man is not alone in his efforts - an accomplice soon appears on screen, also carrying a loaded black carrier bag, seemingly having targeted the back of the shop. The clip ends as the pair flee through the door, walking at pace. Commenters were fuming at his shameless theft when the clip was shared online. One wrote: 'Good of him to bring his own bag for life.' Another said: 'Bare hands and full face reveal because they know they'll get away with it and they do.' Someone else added: 'And we pay for this with higher prices.' Shoplifting is currently a worsening problem both in London specifically and across the country more generally. Rates have almost doubled in two decades, with three thefts a minute recorded across England and Wales in the year to March. There were 530,643 reported to the police in this time - the highest figure since records began and up 20 per cent on the previous year's 444,022. The crisis is most acute in London, where the capital has recorded a shocking 50 per cent boom in shoplifting, up from 53,202 in 2023 to 80,041 last year. Today, Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said last month the force was renewing its 'laser-like focus' on ensuring officers are where they should be: out on the streets tackling crime. The Met has deployed 170 officers in areas of the capital worst for crime, including up to 80 in the West End. It is in this busy central area where shoplifters, phone thieves and so-called 'Rolex rippers' regularly target the rich and tourists. Meanwhile, in government, it has been agreed shoplifting should be called 'shop theft' to avoid downplaying its seriousness. In a letter to ministers yesterday, peers warned the 'outdated' word was 'trivialising the severity of the offence', calling for it to be phased out in legislation and guidance. The Government responded to commit to using 'shop theft' where appropriate, The Telegraph reported. And the national police unit for organised acquisitive crime, Opal, has also said it would encourage use of the term in its general communications. Stores have also been taking independent action, with Iceland announcing on Thursday it is offering customers a £1 reward for catching shoplifters in the act and reporting them to staff. Company boss Richard Walker said these shoppers would receive a payment to their membership card, to cut down on an epidemic costing the firm £20million a year. 'Some people see this as a victimless crime; it is not,' he told Channel 5 News. Sir Keir Starmer has made tackling shoplifting one of his top priorities since taking office. He pledged to spend an extra £200million on neighbourhood policing, as well as making assaulting a shop worker a more serious offence.
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Spiralling building costs are wrecking Britain's prospects
It will provide the water for tens of thousands of homes, allow supply to catch up with a huge rise in the population, and it might even allow resource-hungry data centres to finally get built in the South East of England where they are most needed. There are lots of reasons to welcome the planned new Abingdon Reservoir in Oxfordshire. There is just one catch. The cost has tripled from the initial estimates, and will now come in at £7.5bn. In reality, from nuclear power stations, to rail lines, to runways, this is happening time and time again. Everything costs far more to build in Britain than it does in comparable countries. And until we work out how to fix that, there is no hope of the economy ever recovering. When, or rather if, it is finally opened in 2040, the Abingdon reservoir will be the first major new piece of water infrastructure the UK has built in more than 30 years. Even though we have added 11m people to the total population since 1995, and total output has almost doubled, at least in nominal terms, we have been squeezing every last drop of water out of a largely Victorian water system. The locals may not like it, but we desperately need some new reservoirs, and Abingdon is as good a place as any to start. The problem is the cost. From initial estimates of around £2bn, Thames Water said this week the bill was likely to rise to £7.5bn, and perhaps even more. We can add it to the list of escalating infrastructure costs. Last month, Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, in a rare example of a sensible decision, gave the go-ahead for the Sizewell C nuclear power station. Again, however, the price was shocking. It will come in at £38bn, almost double the £20bn that was estimated when it was first discussed five years ago. If anyone believes that will be the final figure, if I have a pre-loved windmill I would like to sell them. The estimated cost of a third runaway at Heathrow has risen from £14bn to close on £50bn; the cost of the HS2 rail link has already gone up to close on £100bn, and that is after we have halved its length; the cost of the Lower Thames Crossing connecting London and Kent has risen to £10bn, and work hasn't even started yet. The list goes on and on. It makes no difference whether a project is large or small. In my corner of south-west London, Hammersmith Bridge has been closed for years, clogging up traffic for miles, but now that the cost of fixing it has doubled to £250m, the money is not available to start work. Our rivals are far better at keeping costs under control. France is not a cheap country to do business in, but nuclear plants cost less than £10bn each. According to Britain Remade, nuclear power plants cost an estimated £9.4bn per megawatt in the UK compared with £4.4bn in France and £2.2bn in South Korea. Reservoirs are hard to compare precisely because the size and the value of the land varies so much. But the huge new Bassin d'Austerlitz built to clean up the Seine for the Paris Olympics cost only €1.4bn (£1.2bn), far less than Abingdon. As for high-speed rail lines, everyone else builds them for a fraction of the cost in the UK. The trouble is, the soaring cost of building anything is turning into a catastrophe for the economy. There are three big problems. First, hardly any new infrastructure projects get started because the costs are so horrendous. Thames Water was already in dire financial trouble, and adding billions to the cost of new reservoirs is not going to help fix that. Meanwhile, the Government is already so deeply in debt and so strapped for cash, it can't afford to fund them either. Next, the huge bills and the endless escalation of prices deter investors. After all, why bother with infrastructure investments in the UK when you can build the same kit somewhere else for half the price, and earn far better profits? Finally, it means the prices that have to be charged soar out of control. Energy from Sizewell C will cost a lot more than it would have done if it had been built more efficiently. Presumably, anyone planning to travel on HS2, if it ever gets finished, will have to take out a second mortgage to pay for the cost of the ticket to Birmingham. Expensive infrastructure pushes up the price of everything else. The Labour Government was meant to be cutting the costs of building projects. But so far it has failed dismally. We can see that from the way estimates for projects such as Abingdon and Sizewell C keep going up when they should be coming down. We could fix the crisis if the political will were there. Like how? The UK needs to streamline its planning rules so that a single minister could give the green light for a project, without local consultation, without endless reports, and most of all, without any right to judicial review. Likewise, we need to scrap the environmental rules that prioritise wildlife over people and the economy. And we need to train more engineers and skilled construction workers so the labour is available once a project is approved and the finance has been secured. The cost of building anything in Britain is an issue that has been growing for years, but it is now reaching crisis proportions. In the 19th century, Britain was a world leader in creating infrastructure. Until we can build again, at reasonable cost, there is no hope of the economy recovering – and eventually the water, and the power, will just run out.
