Tories ‘have betrayed store employees’ after robust new legislation change plan ditched
Tories have been accused of betraying shop workers by failing to deliver a promised law change to punish thugs who assault them.
The Government announced less than two months ago that it was creating a new criminal offence of assaulting retail staff. At the time Rishi Sunak declared “enough is enough” as he vowed to get tough with criminals.
But despite pledging hard action, Mr Sunak’s decision to call a snap General Election meant there wasn’t time to bring in the new law. Paddy Lillis, general secretary of trade union Usdaw, which represents shop workers, branded the PM’s words a “political stunt”.
The Government’s now-ditched crackdown would have seen people convicted under the new law jailed for six months or hit with an unlimited fine. Ministers bowed to pressure by including this in the Criminal Justice Bill, which was making its way through Parliament before the surprise election announcement.
Labour had previously called for the new offence to be created, but ministers rejected this before U-turning in April. Mr Lillis said: “I am now not convinced that they ever intended to follow through on this promise, after failing to support the Labour amendment, delaying the passage of the Bill and then allowing it fall before Parliament closed for a General Election.”
There are an average of 1,300 cases of violence or abuse against shop staff every day, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) estimates.
Mr Lillis went on: “The dither and delay of this Government, on this issue, over many years, has led to thousands of shop workers needlessly suffering physical and mental injury.
“It is an absolute disgrace to play games with the lives of shop workers, key workers in every community, on the front line suffering unprecedented violence, abuse and threats in a retail crime epidemic.”
Giving his backing to Labour, which has vowed to make assaulting a shop worker a specific offence, he said: “We hope that fourteen years of Tory failure are about to come to an end, so that our members can secure the change they desperately need on this and many other issues.”
Announcing the tough measures earlier this year, Mr Sunak said: “I am sending a message to those criminals – whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves – who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shopworkers, enough is enough.
“Our local shops are the lifeblood of our communities, and they must be free to trade without the threat of crime or abuse.”
