Reform's Robert Jenrick confronted a shoplifter on the streets of south London who had been caught swiping a bottle of Dr Pepper from Greggs.

Mr Jenrick, the party's treasury spokesman, was filmed tailing a man in a black puffer jacket in Brixton – asking him why he felt he could 'take things when everyone else is paying'.

The embarrassed thief urged Mr Jenrick to 'relax' before insisting 'they say yes' to which the MP replied: 'Oh, they're happy with it are they?'

Mr Jenrick joked: 'Everyone loves shoplifting don't they now.'

He added: 'The effect of what you're doing is everyone else's food and drink just goes up in price - do you think other people can afford that round here?

'Everyone's finding life tough at the moment - you're nicking stuff, sounds like all the time, and it's just making everyone's life more expensive.' 

Mr Jenrick then said he would take the bottle back to the shop to which the shoplifter responded 'please.'

The Newark MP placed the item back on the top shelf before informing staff a 'bloke had just come in and nicked this'.

Speaking after the incident, Mr Jenrick said: 'I'm sick of seeing brazen shoplifting and nothing ever happening. In fact, the government is making it worse by letting prisoners out early.

'The shoplifting epidemic is forcing the cost of the weekly food shop up by £50 for British families. It's outrageously unfair.

'Reform will come down on shoplifters like a ton of bricks so we can lower food prices and give families some relief.'

The comments follow the first wave of Labour's 'prison break-out bonanza' after hundreds of criminals were let out of jail on Thursday.

Up to 50,000 offenders a year are likely to be freed early under Prime Minister Andy Burnham's controversial programme.

The first 700 inmates were freed from jails across England and Wales yesterday with many thanking the PM for their new freedom.

At HMP Brixton in south London, serial thief David Elliott declared: 'I'm gonna go stealing again.'

One prisoner leaving HMP Durham said: 'Justice system, what justice system? Thank you, Andy Burnham.'

Another walking out of HMP Cardiff who was asked if he had a message for the Labour leader said: 'Thank you very much and don't get me back here again, bro.'

Thousands of criminals a month will be eligible for early release once the scheme is fully up and running.

Shadow Home Secretary Conservative Chris Philp said: 'This is just the start, and a tsunami of criminals will be swept out of prison and on to our streets by this Labour government.

'As the months go by more and more serious criminals will be released. The public will be less safe because of Burnham's prison break-out bonanza. It will pose an acute threat to public safety every single day.'

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the Government was releasing offenders 'who will probably go back and end up terrorising their victims'.

The Government says it has been forced to let criminals out to free up space in overcrowded jails and stop the justice system from collapsing.

Justice Secretary Alex Norris said: 'We understand the anxiety victims face ahead of offenders' release dates, but the greatest danger to victims would be prisons running out of cells for dangerous criminals, which was the crisis this Government inherited.

'Our plan will make sure this never happens again by building 14,000 prison places while subjecting offenders to the toughest–ever controls, leaving them nowhere to hide and under no doubt that we are watching them.' 

Yesterday's first day of Labour's new programme involved offenders jailed for up to 19 months.

But between October 13 and early next summer, the scheme will be applied to nine further groups of offenders who were handed increasingly lengthy sentences.

The Government refused to disclose how many prisoners are projected to be let out early in total.

But Ministry of Justice documents showed that the scheme will be a 'new permanent approach' and early releases will 'continue on a business-as-usual basis'.

In April this year, it emerged shoplifting offences reported to police in England and Wales have more than doubled in five years – but very few had resulted in a charge.

Total thefts rose by 133 per cent from 228,128 in 2020-21 to 530,457 in 2024-25, according to House of Commons Library data analysed by the Liberal Democrats.

But just 19.8 per cent of offences in 2024-25 resulted in a charge being made – with the worst rate coming from the Metropolitan Police, which was only 6.5 per cent.

British Transport Police had a charge rate of 10.8 per cent, then Gloucestershire at 11.9 per cent, Avon and Somerset at 12.2 per cent and Dyfed-Powys at 14.3 per cent.

It comes as London retailers face an escalating shoplifting crisis with the Met having reported 93,626 cases in 2024-25, up 202 per cent from 31,008 in 2020-21.

Durham Constabulary had the best record, bringing charges in 32.7 per cent of cases in 2024-25, followed by Humberside at 31.9 per cent and Norfolk at 30.6 per cent.

Chief Inspector Rav Pathania, the Metropolitan Police's lead for tackling retail crime, previously told the Mail: 'Retail crime is a top priority for the Met. Last year, we solved nearly double the number of shoplifting cases and made almost 50 per cent more arrests.

'These results reflect our relentless approach, the effective use of technology such as facial recognition, and close collaboration with retailers - who are vital partners in helping us identify and pursue the repeat offenders causing fear and harm to retail workers and communities.'

He went on to insist shoplifters are escaping justice because storekeepers are refusing to hand over CCTV.

Mr Pathania claimed that if retail managers released more footage of offences then officers would be able to clamp down on crime – saying that the force never got CCTV for 80 per cent of crimes last year.

He added that in cases where shopkeepers did pass on footage, police could identify 80 per cent of suspects by running the images through databases of known offenders.

The Met claims to be making significant progress in tackling shoplifting, with reported offences in London falling by 3 per cent between April 2025 and March 2026, compared with the same period the previous year.

Its 'positive outcome rate' – including charges, cautions, penalty notices – has risen to 14 per cent in 2024-25, up from 8 per cent in the previous financial year.