Marks & Spencer has called on the government and London’s mayor to crack down on retail crime, saying it has become “more brazen, more organised and more aggressive”, after reporting an increase in shoplifting and violence at its stores.

The M&S chief executive, Stuart Machin, has written to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and its retail director, Thinus Keeve, has written to the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, saying greater resources are needed for police to tackle the crime effectively and target repeat offenders and crime hotspots.

“In the past week alone we have had gangs forcing open locked cabinets and stripping shelves, two men brazenly emptying the shelves of steak and walking out, a large group of young people ransacking a store before assaulting a security guard, a colleague head- butted trying to defuse a situation and another hospitalised after having ammonia thrown in their face,” Keeve wrote on the M&S website.

“It is worse in London, but it is happening across the country, and it is becoming routine, because it seems there are no consequences.”

Police responded to reports of antisocial behaviour involving a group of “several hundred young people” this week in Clapham, south London, as part of “link-ups” using social media apps, including TikTok and Snapchat.

Keeve said there were about 5.5m incidents of shoplifting last year across the UK, excluding “the vast number that go unreported”. “Every day, more than 1,600 retail workers face violence or abuse. This is not isolated. It is systemic and it is getting worse, not better.”

A screengrab shows a scene in Clapham after crowds of young people descended on the area in a social media ‘link-up’ this week. Photograph: Instagram

He added: “Without a government seriously cracking down on crime and a mayor that prioritises effective policing we are powerless. We need a stronger, faster and more consistent police response, using tools that already exist to target repeat offenders and crime hotspots. And we need far greater transparency on crime so the true scale and impact is understood and can be used to target resources.

“We need to recognise this for what it is. A systemic issue. A growing issue. And one that demands a coordinated response across government, policing and industry.”

About 100 officers were called to Clapham High Street on Tuesday where young people were reported to be attempting to access shops and a restaurant. Fires were also lit on Clapham Common and fireworks set off.

Six teenage girls were arrested after two separate incidents of antisocial behaviour “fuelled by online trends”, according to the Metropolitan police. Five people were assaulted, including four police officers. The Met said it expected more arrests would be made in the coming days.

Khan has condemned the scenes in Clapham as “utterly unacceptable”. He said “the culprits will face the full force of the law” and that police were working with social media companies to try to clamp down on “viral online content which promotes violence and theft”.

Adam Hawksbee, the head of external affairs at M&S, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Retail crime has always been a challenge, but it does feel in the past weeks and months that the problem is getting worse.”

Asked about the impact of shoplifting on staff, Hawksbee said it “clearly has an impact”, and that staff “worried about coming into work, they might be nervous about the journey home, and that’s not the position that we want our colleagues to be in”.

Shoplifting offences increased in England and Wales in the year to September, but remained slightly below record levels seen in the 12 months to March 2025, the latest Office for National Statistics figures available show.

There were 519,381 shoplifting offences in the year to September 2025, up 5% from 492,660 the previous year. A total of 530,643 offences were recorded in the year to March 2025.