Sir Keir Starmer is giving the “green light for even more criminality” by considering scrapping short sentences, Robert Jenrick has declared.

The Shadow Justice Secretary warned shoplifting is “at its highest level on record” and “serial thieves are getting soft sentences only to reoffend again.”

Almost 500,000 shoplifting offences were recorded in the year to September, prompting retail bosses to put security tags on “basic” products.

And new analysis by Crush Crime showed how offenders with a long history of breaking the law have been let off with a slap on the wrist or a short spell in jail.

In one shocking case, a domestic abuser with 11 convictions for 13 offences against previous partners was handed just nine weeks’ imprisonment after assaulting his fiancée.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Shoplifting is at its highest level on record. Serial thieves are getting soft sentences only to reoffend again and again. Now Starmer is looking to scrap prison sentences for offences like theft and burglary. That would be a green light for even more criminality.”

Mr Jenrick warned businesses are passing on the costs of shoplifting to families. He added: “It only seems to be getting worse.

“Labour are currently considering scrapping short sentences. That’s literally the opposite of what we should be doing.

“If we want to be ending the epidemic of shoplifting, we need to catch these hyper-prolific thieves. We need to convict them and we need to send them to prison for much longer.”

Home Office figures showed 269,237 of the 492,914 cases reported to police last year were closed before a suspect was even identified.

Some 738 shoplifting offences went unsolved every day in the year to September 2024, figures revealed. This is a 19% increase on the previous year, analysis has revealed.

Meanwhile, just 88,165 shoplifting cases last year resulted in a charge or summons – accounting for 18% of all cases. Some 2,136,252 crimes went unsolved across England and Wales in the year ending September 2024.

This accounted for nearly 40% of all crimes recorded that year. Overall, police recorded 6.66 million crimes in England and Wales in the 12 months to September. But Labour is preparing to significantly reduce the number of criminals who are sent to jail.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has launched a review with a remit to “explore tougher punishments outside of prison”, including house arrest.

A report last month claimed a “tough on crime narrative” had left the justice system on “the brink of collapse”. Former Tory justice secretary David Gauke, who is leading the review for Labour, said “prison is not the only form of punishment”.

Mr Jenrick also pressed the minister to rule out reducing sentences for burglary, theft and shoplifting. He said: “If her department can’t even tag prisoners properly, why should the public have any confidence in her plan to use them in place of short prison sentences?

“The threshold for a prison sentence is already high, often criminals have committed multiple offences before they’re first considered for prison, which is why scrapping short sentences will endanger the public and will serve as a green light for criminality.

“So can the Justice Secretary therefore take this opportunity to reassure the public and rule-out reducing sentences for burglary, for theft, or for shoplifting? It’s a simple question, yes or no?”

Ms Mahmood said the Government is “going to fix the mess that his party left behind and make sure there is always a prison place available for everyone that needs to be locked up to keep the public safe”.

She added that the range of punishments outside prison will be expanded and those who enter the prison system will be helped to turn their lives around.

Shadow justice minister Dr Kieran Mullan accused the Government of commissioning a sentencing review on the premise of “keeping people out of prison who should be there as part of their proper punishment”.

He added that the report “cherry picks evidence from reports to support a narrative that an ill-informed public don’t know what they want and don’t understand”.

Justice minister Sir Nicholas Dakin replied: “Victims are front and centre of our approach to fixing the mess the party opposite left us. There is a victims representative on the panel, as he well knows, victims were fully involved and engaged in this.”