‘Labour must bring back hope to our high streets’

The Prime Minister has made clear that his premiership will mark a circuit breaker for Britain, to bring forward the biggest and most hopeful changes to our political and economic model in over 40 years.

Nowhere is this needed more than on our high streets. When I talk to my constituents, this is one of the single most important issues to them. Our high streets are a living representation of our communities, and when they fall into decline, people feel the effects intensely.

Years of economic neglect have given way to high vacancy rates, and critically, the emergence of brazen criminality, in the form of countless dodgy vape shops, mini-marts, barbers, ‘American’ candy stores, and takeaways that have overrun shopfronts across our town and city centres.

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Hijacked High Streets, a new report I have worked on with the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), has found that over nine in ten of these shops remain open after selling illegal tobacco and vapes, with just eight per cent shut down.

In some areas, half of vape shops and mini marts are thought to have links to organised crime, with the CSJ’s inquiry finding deeply concerning links between dodgy shops and drug trafficking, child sexual exploitation, and immigration crime.

Over the last year, I have led a parliamentary campaign to shut down these criminal enterprises as the foundation of high street revitalisation. This campaign has gained the backing of over 70 MPs, securing a commitment from the government to establish a new High Street Organised Crime Unit, as well as plans to extend the duration of closure orders from 3 months to 12, and a veto on new vape shops.

These are welcome first steps, but the PM and Home Secretary must not relent on eradicating organised crime from our high streets.

The number of criminal high street businesses continues to grow, with nearly 1,000 more shops raided in 2025 compared to 2024. Sadly, the consequences of allowing this activity to continue runs deeper than top-line economic criminality.

The Ivison Trust, a children’s exploitation charity, say they have worked with children debt-bound to criminal gangs, who have been given vapes laced with illegal drugs like spice. In other cases, young girls have been given nail treatments at dodgy shops, which they were led to believe were free, and then coerced – through violence and threats – into selling illegal drugs or shoplifting to order, because they were told they owed a debt.

These shops aren’t just selling packs of dodgy cigarettes; they actively sponsor and fuel wider criminality across our communities. In one part of Manchester, the closing of 206 criminal enterprises resulted in a 45 per cent decline in public order offences, a 69 per cent fall in vehicle crime, and a  62 per cent drop in violent crime.

These results show what is achievable when enforcement agencies are given the powers and resources they need to meaningfully tackle high street criminality. The PM should take heart from what has been achieved in Manchester and commit to a similarly tough approach nationally.

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This has to begin with tougher powers for Trading Standards and the police, who are too often forced to operate with one hand tied behind their back. While extending the duration of time a dodgy shop can be closed is welcome, the truth is these powers remain too difficult to use, with the vast majority of criminal shops remaining open.

The CSJ report rightly recommends the introduction of new powers, modelled on what’s available to the Fire Service, to shut down criminal enterprises on the spot when there is any evidence of criminality taking place. Such closure orders would only require court approval when an appeal is triggered and include permanent closures for repeat offenders.

In addition, the Tobacco and Vapes Act grants the government powers to introduce licensing for any retailer selling these products. This is a historic opportunity to tighten up the regulations around vape shops and mini marts, by banning prolific offenders from ever holding a licence. But despite the potential of this legislation, the introduction of tough new licensing has been delayed until 2027.

This past year we have begun to retake our town and city centres from those who prey on them. But the job is half done. Enforcement agencies need both the funding and the powers to finish it.

As the government develops its high street strategy and the Prime Minister sets out his ten-year plan for Britain, restoring security to our communities must sit at the heart of both.

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