Recent disorder on high streets is the fault of Labour and its London mayor Sadiq Khan‘s failure to tackle crime, a Marks & Spencer executive has said.
Retail director Thinus Keeve has demanded answers after his staff and customers were attacked by mobs of youths during several incidents.
And he hit back at claims by Sir Sadiq that London was ‘one of the safest global cities in the world’.
‘I keep hearing crime is falling, especially in London – something none of us believes, and very few people working in retail would see,’ Mr Keeve said.
‘In fact, we see the absolute opposite in our high streets and in our stores.’ Footage from the attacks showed hundreds of young people, many dressed in all black, surging into shops in Clapham, south London, in coordinated ‘link-ups’ organised through social media.
Incidents have also been reported in Birmingham, with further link-ups anticipated this weekend.
Other staff had been headbutted, while another had ammonia thrown in their face. He added: ‘It is worse in London, but it is happening across the country, and it is becoming routine because it seems there are no consequences.
‘Without a government seriously cracking down on crime and a mayor who prioritises effective policing, we are powerless.’
More than 300 teenagers descended on Clapham Common basketball courts on Tuesday before swarming the high street where they looted shops and attacked police
Police try to disperse the youths who took to the streets in Clapham on Tuesday afternoon
Fires were spotted burning on the fields of Clapham Common as police arrived to put them out
Sir Sadiq said he expected police to take a zero-tolerance approach.
Mr Keeve said ‘a large group of young people had ransacked a store’ before assaulting security.
The supermarket chief’s call for action from the Mayor of London is the biggest intervention from retailers yet.
But the epidemic of shoplifting has long blighted Britain’s shops and bosses have long pushed for stronger measures to be taken against offenders.
Teen flash mobs wrought havoc in Clapham this week with feral youths tearing through the streets, stealing from shops, lighting fires and terrorising innocent bystanders in a series of Easter holiday rampages.
Staff working on the bustling high street described having to lock their doors early as children ran amok on Saturday and Tuesday, flouting police orders to disperse and even engaging in aggressive confrontations with officers.
And with weeks of the holidays still to go, it seems we have only seen the start of this surge in youth disorder.
Answering a call to cause chaos which first spawned on social media last week, scheming teens are believed to already be plotting their next mob action.
The teenagers organising the disruptions have shifted their planning to more secretive group chats.
Frenzied ‘link ups’ over the past few days were first arranged using a digital flyer on Snapchat which read: ‘Clapham Courts return link up 2026…Let’s bring back courts for summer from now!!!! Saturday 28 March – 2pm till late.’
At the bottom of the flyer, a line encouraged attendees to bring their own balloons – often used to consume laughing gas – as well as cannabis, Metro reported.
Messages on a leaked Snapchat group chat reveal the planning that went into the Clapham flash mob and the potential for further meet-ups.
Burgess Park and Crystal Palace Park in south London are touted as possible locations for the next ‘link up’.
Users exchange texts telling each other how excited they are for the flash mob, with one boasting: ‘If I’m dere police are gna be da 1 dats running.’
The group chat then goes on to discuss the chances of getting caught following the disruption with one participant asking: ‘Am I cooked?’
Concocting plans for how to escape police action, one says: ‘Tell them the police are racist.’
‘Crystal Palace Park is a shout,’ one person says.
‘Bc [Because] it’s too big for police to swarm it, plus there’s only one entrance police can come through and it’s all the way at the back.’
Another adds: ‘Burgess is too big for anyone to get bagged and there’s bare [lots of] exits.’
Footage from Tuesday’s meetup – which instilled panic among commuters and shoppers in Clapham – saw a police officer playing basketball with young men in the hours after mobs were attacking emergency workers and looting stores.
A video shows PC Kyp Kyriacou from the Metropolitan Police – known as the ‘slam dunking police officer’ – at Clapham Common basketball courts on Tuesday night, after teenagers had been running amok on the nearby high street in South London.
Already liked 2,500 times, the clip was posted by TikTok user @cb.wxrld with the caption: ‘I can’t get arrested now.’
The Daily Mail understands PC Kyriacou was part of the team of local officers in Clapham during the disorder, and the video was filmed once this had ended. There is no suggestion any of the men in the clip were involved in any wrongdoing.
Police officer Kyp Kyriacou holds the ball at Clapham Common basketball courts on Tuesday. There is no suggestion any of the men in the video were involved in any criminal wrongdoing
Meanwhile, as youths ran riot in the streets, Sir Sadiq Khan urged British diplomats to help counter ‘disinformation and lies’ about London amplified by Donald Trump.
The Mayor used a Reuters interview on Tuesday to call on diplomats stationed around the world to help fight back against ‘propaganda’ from the US President.
Mr Trump, a frequent critic of Sir Sadiq whom he has called a ‘terrible mayor,’ has made a series of claims about London, including assertions that crime is ‘through the roof’ and that the city wants to ‘go to sharia law’.
But Sir Sadiq, in an interview following a meeting with British diplomats, ambassadors and high commissioners, said that London was not perfect but that it remained a safe city – safer than major US cities.
