Marks and Spencer Calls Out Khan and Labour Over Rising Retail Crime Crisis

Marks and Spencer has escalated its public campaign against rising retail crime, directly challenging the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood over what the retailer describes as a systemic failure to address lawlessness on Britain’s high streets. The intervention marks the most significant political statement made by a major British retailer on the issue to date.

Thinus Keeve, M&S’s retail director, outlined a catalogue of violent incidents affecting store staff in a single week alone, including colleagues being headbutted, shelves stripped by gangs operating in coordinated groups, and one employee hospitalised following an ammonia attack. Writing publicly on the matter, Keeve stated plainly: “Without a Government seriously cracking down on crime and a Mayor that prioritises effective policing, we are powerless.”

The timing of M&S’s intervention is notable. Large groups of teenagers, reportedly coordinated through social media, stormed several outlets this week, with footage circulating of approximately 100 youths invading an M&S branch on Clapham High Street last Saturday. Balaclava-clad groups were subsequently filmed lighting fires in south London on Tuesday. The Metropolitan Police have issued a formal warning to parents and guardians ahead of the Easter bank holiday weekend, with Detective Chief Superintendent Emma Bond urging adults to “take responsibility” for their children’s whereabouts.

Six teenage girls have been arrested in connection with the so-called “link-ups,” a social media-driven phenomenon in which young people arrange to converge on retail locations and cause disorder. The Met’s area policing lead, Det Ch Supt Bond, warned those involved to “carefully consider the consequences” of behaviour they may regard as merely recreational.

M&S’s chief executive, Stuart Machin, has written directly to the Home Secretary, whilst Keeve has addressed correspondence to the Mayor of London. Their collective demand centres on three priorities: a stronger and more consistent police response; greater transparency in crime statistics to reflect the genuine scale of retail offending; and more systematic use by police forces of data-sharing tools already funded by retailers themselves.

The retailer is currently working with Auror, a crime intelligence platform that enables stores to document incidents and identify repeat offenders, feeding actionable data to law enforcement. Keeve’s frustration is that despite this investment, police forces are not consistently utilising the technology. “This is not complicated,” he wrote. “The capability exists. The data exists. The investment has been made. Time is up.”

The broader retail sector has voiced increasingly urgent concerns. Data published by the British Retail Consortium in March confirmed that London customers were the most likely in the country to have witnessed shoplifting. Separate BRC figures indicate that retail workers experienced 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse per day last year, with the trade body cautioning that actual rates are likely considerably higher due to widespread under-reporting. The retail industry collectively spent GBP 985 million on crime prevention measures last year, deploying additional surveillance systems, security personnel, and physical barriers across store networks.

The Co-operative Group has been among the most vocal of retailers on this issue, arguing consistently that organised criminal networks, rather than individuals driven by financial hardship, are responsible for a significant share of the attacks. Tesco’s chief executive, Ken Murphy, has similarly expressed concern for the welfare of frontline staff, noting that employees should not have to “wonder if the same criminals will come back the next day for another go.”

The political dimension of the dispute sharpened considerably this week when Khan dismissed characterisations of London as unsafe as “lies” and “false propaganda,” urging UK ambassadors to challenge such narratives internationally. His office subsequently acknowledged that “more needs to be done,” pointing to GBP 1.26 billion in City Hall funding allocated to the Metropolitan Police, including a doubling of officer numbers in the West End and the deployment of an additional 90 officers across crime hotspots. The Mayor is understood to be meeting with M&S in the coming days.

Metropolitan Police shoplifting figures for the year to September 2025 showed a near-20 per cent increase in recorded incidents across the capital, a trajectory that sits in direct tension with the Mayor’s public messaging. The Met’s retail crime lead, Chief Inspector Rav Pathania, described shoplifting as “a top priority” and indicated that open offers had been extended to M&S to improve reporting and information-sharing in line with other retailers.

The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, used the disorder to intensify political pressure on the Government, calling for a substantial increase in police officer numbers, a tripling of stop-and-search operations, and expanded use of live facial recognition technology in high-crime retail areas. Philp accused the Government of “letting criminals out of jail early” and characterised Mahmood as “too weak” to take the necessary action, pointing to the planned abolition of custodial sentences of under one year as particularly counterproductive.

Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones responded by emphasising that the Government is equipping police with stronger powers and removing the effective immunity that previously applied to thefts valued under GBP 200. However, retailers and opposition figures have questioned whether legislative intent is translating into operational results on the ground.

Keeve’s broader argument is that retail crime is not a peripheral commercial inconvenience but a structural threat to local economies and to the livelihoods of those who depend on high streets for employment. Retail, he noted, serves as a primary entry point into the workforce for many young people in the United Kingdom. When stores become unsafe, that pipeline is compromised. The sector’s message to Government and the Mayor of London is unambiguous: the investment has been made, the tools are available, and the time for incremental responses has passed.