Following his keynote address to the annual Trades Union Congress in Brighton, the Labour leader took a series of questions from delegates.
Usdaw president Jane Jones asked: “I work in retail and increasing levels of violence, threats and abuse are a massive concern for me and my colleagues.
“Labour’s welcome commitment to introduce a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker, will send out a clear message that this government takes retail crime seriously. What more will your government do to help us feel safe at work?”
In response, Starmer said: “On the question of offences against retail workers, this truly is shocking. Usdaw has a very important campaign on this and Paddy Lillis (Usdaw general secretary) raises it with me pretty well every time we meet and rightly so.
“It is not acceptable and it can’t be acceptable in any circumstances. It is demoralising for the workforce and that’s why I’m pleased we can introduce an offence to deal with it.
“But we have to go further than that. We can’t have the situation where shoplifters can walk in, shoplift and walk back out again and nobody can do anything about it.
“We’re going to change that, work with you, we have to take it seriously. I’m not wanting to hear again from those on the frontline about the appalling attacks and insults that they are subjected to.
“It’s everywhere across the country, it is really hard for the workforce to take. You have rightly championed it as a cause, we join in that cause and we will do something about it working with trade unions on such an important issue.”
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