Peter Whittle has fumed at the rising shoplifting epidemic in the UK, after Nichi Hodgson suggested it was due to the cost of living crisis.
New Culture Forum Direct Peter Whittle and commentator Nichi Hodgson joined presenters Tom Harwood and Ellie Costello on Britain’s Newsroom to share their thoughts on the issue.
Peter said: “I get so fed up when I hear people saying this is due to the cost of living crisis. It's absolutely nothing to do with it. It's born out of basically a belief that you won't be punished.
"It's born out of a belief that the police are not going to act and it's also born out of a belief that the people and security in the shops will not actually apprehend you.
“All three of those are true, right? And hence there is absolutely no sanction against this.
"If you were about cost of living, people would be ransacking food shops. It's not, you know, it's not a cost of living crisis when you have people stealing wigs, stealing cosmetics, stealing small electrical goods.”
Whittle continued: “The fact is, this is the biggest insult to say that somehow this is all down to people in the cost of living.
"People in the past century have had far worse levels of poverty, far worse deprivation than that they have now.
"And to somehow say that they automatically, therefore this is what people do is hugely insulting to those people who wouldn't dream actually of going and shoplifting simply, you know, because they were poor or because they were struggling.
“And I find this is an incredible, a pathetic way out of a situation, which is that the police are far more intent on going and basically knocking on your door for something you've tweeted or something you've liked on Facebook. They're very hot on that.”
Watch the discussion in full above.
Tune in to Britain’s Newsroom, Monday to Friday from 9:30am, only on GB News.
