Greggs shoplifting is shocking & shameful – Sun has done vital public service by exposing crime, Policing Minister says
THE scale of shoplifting from Greggs is “shocking and shameful”, the Policing Minister blasted today after a Sun investigation exposed the crime spree.
Dame Diana Johnson hailed our probe as “a vital public service” and vowed to increase punishments to end “the era of criminal impunity”.
We witnessed countless cases of thieves swiping baked and sweet treats from stores across the country – with staff powerless to intervene.
The broad daylight stealing has sparked calls for urgent action to clamp down on shoplifting, which has risen by 60 per cent in just three years.
Writing for us, Labour’s Dame Diana said: “The Sun has done a vital public service this week, highlighting the scale of theft from Greggs stores across the country.
“To see the number of people willing to help themselves and walk out without paying is both shocking and shameful.”
The Policing Minister warned brazen shoplifting is happening in “every shop in every street” and blamed the Tories for making it “open season” for thieves.
The Home Office is scrapping the £200 “low-value threshold” where criminals nicking less than that amount are not pursued by police.
Dame Diana also promised plans to put more bobbies on the beat and introduce a specific offence for assaulting shopworkers will make a start to end the “epidemic”.
She said: “We refuse to surrender our streets to the thugs and our shops from the thieves. It’s time to bring back the rule of law.”
The Tories were also aghast at the shoplifting from Greggs, with Robert Jenrick railing against “appalling criminality”.
The thefts by crooks with no fear of any consequences is the latest example of how law and order is falling apart in broken Britain.
In one incident, when a shoplifter was confronted, he simply gave the worker a fist bump and handed back some of the food he had pilfered before strolling out.
In another theft caught on camera, a woman appears to pull a face at the selection of cookies on display — before deciding to swipe some for herself anyway.
Our investigators spent two days on a nationwide probe at 11 Greggs stores from Newcastle to Brighton noting the shoplifting crisis blighting our high streets.
“At one branch in Stockwell, South London, we witnessed at least one shoplifting incident an hour.
Bakery chain Greggs has bouncers on the doors of some stores.
It's time to bring back the rule of law
By DAME DIANA JOHNSON, Policing Minister
THE Sun has done a vital public service this week, highlighting the scale of theft from Greggs stores across the country. To see the number of people willing to help themselves and walk out without paying is both shocking and shameful.
And it is not just Greggs. Last year, in England and Wales, the police recorded almost half a million shoplifting offences, up sixty per cent since 2022. It is happening in every shop in every street, an epidemic of theft that we urgently need to control.
First, let’s understand how this happened. The last government slashed neighbourhood policing, removing that vital uniformed presence from our town centres, and emboldening the thieves to operate in plain sight.
Then, to compound that mistake, they introduced a new £200 threshold for ‘low-value shoplifting’. If you stole goods below that limit, you were effectively immune from prosecution. That made it open season on stores like Greggs.
In 2023, Chris Philp – current Shadow Home Secretary – explained that “the police can’t be everywhere all the time.” Instead, he suggested the public should make their own citizen’s arrests. That was the Tory answer: we can’t help, so fend for yourselves.
That is not the answer from this Labour Government. Through our Plan for Change, we’re scrapping the £200 limit, so no thief is immune from prosecution. We’re putting 13,000 new neighbourhood police back on the beat this Parliament, including 3,000 in the next year alone.
We’re creating a new offence of assault against shop workers, so thieves who use violence and intimidation get the extra punishment they deserve. And we’re introducing new Respect Orders, allowing us to ban repeat offenders from town centres.
We can’t end this epidemic overnight, but we can start to rebuild our defences, restore neighbourhood policing, and end the era of criminal impunity. We refuse to surrender our streets to the thugs and our shops from the thieves. It’s time to bring back the rule of law.