LABOUR Conference 2023: Yvette Cooper pledge to deliver Freedom From Fear for shopworkers welcomed by Usdaw.

Retail trade union Usdaw has welcomed Yvette Cooper’s keynote address to the annual Labour Conference in Liverpool. The Shadow Home Secretary set out a series of measures to address the current epidemic in shoplifting and rising violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers.

Responding to the speech, Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Today Yvette Cooper has given us a pledge that the next Labour Government will deliver on the aims of Usdaw’s long-running ‘Freedom from Fear’ campaign, which seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers.

“Our members can be assured that, as the next Home Secretary, Yvette will lead from the front and deliver: 13,000 more neighbourhood police with guaranteed patrols in town centres; Respect Orders to ban repeat offenders from town centres; a standalone offence for assaulting a public service worker and will end the £200 threshold for investigating and prosecuting shop theft.

“In the face of an epidemic of theft from shops, these policies will make a real difference to the lives of our members working on the frontline of retail. Shoplifting is not a victimless crime. Usdaw’s annual survey found that a third of incidents of violence threats and abuse against shopworkers were triggered by theft.

“By contrast, the Tories repeatedly opposed a protection of workers law that would have provided a standalone offence for abusing or assaulting a shopworker. They boast about recruiting extra police officers, but it barely covers the numbers cut under their failed austerity programme.

“We need a Government to take the issue of retail crime seriously, not by suggesting citizens’ arrests or ignoring the problem, but by taking positive steps and actions which have broad consensus across the industry. Only Labour has the policies to tackle the crime that blights retail and our communities.”