Marks and Spencer’s retail boss has warned crime is getting “more brazen, more organised and more aggressive” after a week plagued by antisocial behaviour.
Retail director Thinus Keeve hit out at the government and London mayor Sadiq Khan in a letter posted to the supermarket’s website.
“Without a government seriously cracking down on crime and a mayor that prioritises effective policing, we are powerless,” he said.
Following unrest on Saturday, about 100 officers responded to antisocial behaviour in Clapham, south London, on Tuesday, four of whom were assaulted, along with one member of the public.
Scores of teenagers and young adults were participating in so-called “link-ups” – using social media apps including TikTok and Snapchat before surging into shops.
M&S was reportedly one of the stores targeted.
Mr Keeve went on: “It is becoming more brazen, more organised and more aggressive.”
“We need a stronger, faster and more consistent police response, using tools that already exist to target repeat offenders and crime hotspots,” he said, adding: “It’s a clear ask: support our police. Help them show up in our communities when and where we need them.
“Give them the resources they need to tackle crime effectively, and ensure they work with retailers to consistently use the tools we’ve developed to share data and actively target offenders.”
‘None of us believe crime is falling’
He also questioned claims that crime rates are falling in the capital.
He said: “I keep hearing crime is falling, especially in London – something none of us believe, and very few people working in retail would see.”
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Is crime falling in London?
Responding to the unrest in Clapham, London mayor Sadiq Khan said “huge progress has been made” to reduce many serious crimes, including violence with injury, burglary and homicides.
But M&S retail director Thinus Keeve has questioned the claims that crime rates in the capital are actually falling.
The figures show a mixed picture, depending on what type of crime you’re looking at, with homicides recorded in London at their lowest level in a decade.
There were 97 murders in 2025, down 11% from 109 in 2024, representing the lowest number recorded since 95 homicides 11 years ago, in 2014, according to data from the Met.
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) crime figures also show knife crime was down almost 11%, with 14,817 offences recorded by the force in the year to September 2025, down from 16,619 the previous year, while burglary saw a 9% drop in London over the same period.
But the picture isn’t so positive when it comes to retail crime, with the figures showing a total of 95,302 offences recorded by London’s police forces in a year, a 19% rise from the previous year, compared to a 5% rise across England and Wales.
Responding to the ONS data in January, the British Retail Consortium said the rise in organised retail crime was “particularly concerning”, adding theft is “one of the main triggers for violence and abuse against retail workers”.
The government’s Crime and Policing Bill, once passed, will make assault of a retail worker an offence and bring low-value shoplifting of goods up to a value of £200 into general theft, with a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
The Met says “significant progress” has been made tackling shoplifting, with reported offences in London falling by 3.4% in the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 from the previous financial year. The positive outcome rate – including charges, cautions and penalty notices – rose to 14% in 2024/5, up from 7.6% in the previous financial year, while arrests were up 1,800 last year – up 44% from 2024, according to data from the force.
Acting superintendent Rav Pathania, the Met’s lead for tackling retail crime, said: “Retail crime is a top priority for the Met and we solved nearly double the number of shoplifting cases last year while arresting almost 50 per cent more suspects.
“We have open offers to M&S to improve their reporting and information sharing with us, in line with other retailers who have already done so, which will help us to tackle this crime as robustly as possible.”
M&S chief executive Stuart Machin has written to the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood following the scenes over the weekend, which Sir Sadiq condemned as “utterly unacceptable”.
The London mayor said “the culprits will face the full force of the law” and police were working with social media companies to try to clamp down on “viral online content which promotes violence and theft”.
‘Part of the broader picture’
Speaking to Sky News, M&S head of external affairs Adam Hawksbee said the Metropolitan Police’s response to the chaos was “excellent”.
But he said the incident in Clapham is “just part of the broader picture”, with 1,600 retail workers a day experiencing violence and abuse.
“Some incidents will be serious and organised crime, and others will be individuals that are under the influence of alcohol and drugs. And this can be really scary, both for our colleagues working in the store and for the security guards,” he said.
“We’ve had ammonia thrown in the face of one of our security guards. In the last week, we’ve had a store manager headbutted and these incidents are not isolated to us at M&S. They’re true across the retail sector and that’s why we feel like we needed to speak out.”
Meanwhile, police in Rochdale issued a 48-hour dispersal order following anti-social behaviour.
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