Sally-Ann Hart: Petty crime is corroding our communities right on our high streets

Sally-Ann Hart is the former MP for Hastings and Rye and a former Rother district councillor. 

It makes me upset when I look at the town centre in Hastings today.

Sadly, it is like so many high streets and town centres across Britain. You will see the same picture of shuttered shops, unhappy shop workers, alcoholics and drug addicts sitting around, and shameless shoplifters strolling out of stores without any feelings of guilt, without any conscience.

For too long, retail crime – shoplifting and abuse of shop workers – and antisocial behaviour have been dismissed as ‘low level crime’. However, there is nothing low level about the impact on ordinary people, on us all. These crimes have become endemic, and the rot has set in.

Public trust has been eroded and respect for the rule of law is seriously undermined – not only by low level crime, but also feelings of a two-tier justice system and politicised judges.

The situation reminds me of potholes, or the run-down state of our streets, pavements and town centres – the everyday things people see all around them.

These are the basics, and if they are not dealt with, people lose confidence that anyone in authority is listening or in control. They feel the system is broken.

The same applies when they see shoplifters behaving with impunity, or teenagers terrorising local communities with antisocial behaviour. These are the basics that government, local authorities and police are supposed to get right.

If we cannot get the basics right, we cannot expect the public to have confidence in anything else.

When I was MP, retail crime and antisocial behaviour was becoming a real problem in Hastings.

I convened meetings with local business owners, the police and local authorities to tackle the behaviour together, head on. Out of that came a Police Community Hub in the town centre where anyone, including members of the public, business owners and retail staff could report situations and express concerns directly to the police, who could then deal with it. It was a practical step, but I had only scratched the surface before I lost my seat. Sadly, those efforts have not been continued by the current Labour MP for Hastings and Rye.

The truth is that the establishment’s approach to crime has gone soft, a result of the flabby liberalism that has permeated our society.

We have slipped into a culture of tolerance towards behaviour that corrodes the foundations of our society.

Shoplifting is not petty, it is theft.

Abuse of shop workers is not petty, it is intimidation.

Antisocial behaviour is not petty, it causes alarm, distress and makes people feel unsafe in their communities.

These crimes blight our communities and when the law fails to deal with these things people draw the only conclusion they can – that the law is no longer on their side.

As a former magistrate, I saw the same names appear before me time and again. Prolific offenders with criminal records as long as your arm. Each time, they were armed with legal aid funded by hardworking taxpayers. It is time to change this.

In addition, magistrates, who reflect the communities they serve, must be given greater freedom through sentencing guidelines to impose tougher penalties. A zero-tolerance approach needs to be taken by all involved in the criminal justice system from government to police to courts. It is offenders who must suffer for their crimes, not victims and communities.

The Conservatives should take a long hard look at the legal aid system and advocate for reform.

Of course, everyone deserves a fair trial (although that fundamental right is questionable under this Labour government), but there is nothing fair about taxpayers funding the same offenders time and time again. My proposal is simple: two strikes, and no more legal aid for repeat ‘low-level’ offenders. The endless merry-go-round of state-funded legal defence only enables criminals to dodge responsibility. They must be forced to face up to their actions.

Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners should steer their police to stop treating retail crime and antisocial behaviour as beneath them and facilitate the resources to help them adopt a zero-tolerance approach. Shoplifting destroys livelihoods. Abuse drives people out of frontline work. Every shoplifter caught should be prosecuted. Every abusive incident should be investigated. We must enforce the law. There is no excuse for not doing so.

This is not about being draconian. It is about restoring order and respect. It is about being unapologetically Conservative and sending a clear message that the Conservative Party is on the side of law-abiding citizens, not repeat offenders. It is about getting the basics right, because without that, nothing else works.

Britain cannot afford to become a nation where the rule of law is optional.

The system is failing, and it is the decent, hardworking majority who are paying the price.

We need unapologetic Conservatism. We need a zero-tolerance approach. And we need it now.