Labour to allow 12,000 shoplifters to avoid jail sparking fears crime could ‘snowball out of control’

Retail theft cost an estimated £2billion last year, while more than 40 per cent of shop workers reported experiencing hostility or abuse in the past six months. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say The seemingly rampant practice has led retail leaders to warn that thieves frequently operate with impunity.Marks Spencer executives have written to London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood this week.They urged stronger action against record levels of shoplifting and warned that offenders have grown more brazen, more organised and more aggressive in their treatment of employees.Jo Causon, who leads the Institute of Customer Service, representing 350 UK businesses, said there had been no real engagement from ministers on surging high-street crime, which she described as a serious threat to economic growth.We've got a workforce that is really frightened about going to work, which is not OK, she said.As a result, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has condemned Labour’s reforms as a shoplifters' charter, warning that retail theft would snowball out of control.Even prolific shoplifters generally get less than a year in prison at the moment. So Labour's plan to abolish prison sentences of under a year means that shoplifters will never go to prison at all, The Croydon South MP told The Telegraph. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:Armed guards protecting Sadiq Khan leave bag of guns outside his home during Clapham youth disorderKeir Starmer issues Easter message as he urges Britons to 'choose community over division'Two men and a teen boy charged over Golders Green ambulance arson attackA Ministry of Justice spokesman defended the reforms, stating that the government had inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse, adding that suspending short sentences was an urgent remedy to prevent future crises.“It would be wrong to suggest every short sentence for shoplifting will be suspended, particularly in the case of reoffenders. However, evidence shows that community orders and suspended sentences act as a more successful deterrent to reoffending than prison time.The spokesman insisted that the Government was delivering one of the biggest expansions of tagging in British history with £100million in funding.It comes as shopkeepers across south London prepare for what they fear could be a chaotic weekend following days of disorder in the capital.In the days previous, hordes of balaclava-clad young people stormed shops in Clapham as part of social media-organised gatherings known as link-ups.Reform UK's London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, a former crown prosecutor, rejected suggestions that crime was declining.The Metropolitan Police has anticipated further unrest over the weekend and has informed local businesses that intensive patrols will be deployed in the area from midday onwards.However, intelligence suggests that those coordinating the disturbances via Snapchat may relocate their activities to Crystal Palace to evade officers.Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter