Sean Woodcock MP Monthly Column March 2025
It’s time to take back our town centres from antisocial behaviour and crime. I am proud to say that the Labour Government has announced tough new action in our Crime and Policing Bill.
Too often crime is dismissed as low-level. But it doesn’t feel low level when it’s our town centre in Banbury that is being plagued by antisocial behaviour, our high street facing an epidemic of shoplifting, or your phone being snatched from your grasp.
These types of offences make people stay away from town centres and feel scared on their own streets. For far too long, the last Government wrote off those crimes, and disregarded how they made ordinary people feel.
They ignored the crisis of young people carrying knives, and the epidemic of violence against women and girls.
But this Labour Government is going to change all that. We will restore trust, and reduce serious harm. And our Plan for Change has committed 13,000 additional neighbourhood police and PCSOs across the country.
Our Crime and Policing Bill introduces Respect Orders to crack down on repeat offenders of antisocial behaviour. It gives the police special warrantless powers of entry so premises so they can move fast and take back stolen phones. And it ends the Tories’ ludicrous £200 limit on shoplifting, which has left so much shop theft ignored.
We will crack down on the online sale and delivery of knives, with stringent age checks and tougher penalties for anyone who sells these deadly weapons to children. And we will protect women from stalking and spiking, stop sex offenders changing their names, and impose tougher sentences on dangerous predators who groom children.
I want to leave all my constituents in no doubt. This Bill is ambitious and wide-ranging. We will work with the police and communities to make our streets safer again. We will never write off crimes that make people afraid. And we will take back our town centres from the thieves and thugs.
Sean Woodcock MP · Tue 11 Mar, 15:24 · Link