Shoplifting cases soared by almost 40% to the highest level in 20 years, damning figures reveal.
Police in England and Wales recorded 430,104 cases last year - up from 315,040 a in 2022. Data from the Office for National Statistics also showed a rise in knife possession cases and a 13% spike in robberies.
Meanwhile the Tories have been accused of under-resourcing frontline policing after figures showed 2,187,300 crimes went unsolved in 2023 - almost 6,000 a day. Labour said organised criminals are "getting away with it".
Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These shocking figures show the scale of Conservative failure on law and order with another steep increase in knife crime and robbery, and record high shoplifting where organised criminals are just getting away with it. The Tories are badly failing to get a grip on the changing patterns of crime.
"Despite repeated warnings from retailers, communities, and from Labour that action was needed to tackle soaring shoplifting and abuse affecting our town centres, these figures show that shoplifting has surged by further 37 per cent in the last 12 months alone to its highest ever recorded level, with ruinous consequences for our town centres and high streets. And despite repeated calls from families and communities for action on the epidemic of knife crime, it has gone up again this year and is now 80 per cent higher than in 2015. Recorded gun crimes, robberies and thefts against the person have also all soared in the last year."
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And Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “Under this Government, criminals are getting let off scot-free. Every day, the unsolved crime epidemic gets worse as burglaries go unsolved, car thefts get left by the wayside and community policing gets decimated.
“Year on year, we see the Conservatives' record on crime become more of a disgrace and it’s the British people who are paying the price. These incompetent, out-of-touch Conservative politicians have failed time and again to tackle crime. It’s time to have a General Election and kick them out of office.”
The ONS data found there were 8.4 million reported offences, a 10% drop compared to the previous year. Knife crime cases rose by 3%, with over 50,000 incidents reported, while incidents involving guns went up by 13%.
There was a big drop in reported criminal damage cases, with criminal damage down by 28% and fraud dropping by 13%. There were 602 homicides, down from 667 in the year to June 2022.