Reform UK's Robert Jenrick confronts alleged shoplifter in Brixton and returns drink

Reform UK's Robert Jenrick, MP for Newark, was filmed in Brixton, south London, confronting a man who allegedly took a bottled drink from a shop without paying. 1 2 The Daily Mail identified the item as a bottle of Dr Pepper taken from Greggs and described Jenrick as Reform's treasury spokesman. 2 In the footage Jenrick asked the man why he thought he could take things while everyone else pays, and the man replied that the shop staff say yes when they ask. 1

Jenrick answered that shoplifting pushes up food and drink prices for everyone else at a time when "everyone's finding life tough". 1 2 Jenrick then took the drink back into the shop and told staff it had been taken; the Daily Mail says he put it back on a shelf and told staff a 'bloke had just come in and nicked this'. 1 2 Accounts of how the return came about differ slightly: GB News says the man first agreed to take the drink back and later Jenrick offered to return it for him, while the Daily Mail says Jenrick offered and the man answered 'please'. 1 2

Afterwards Jenrick said he was "sick of seeing brazen shoplifting and nothing ever happening", blamed the government for making it worse by letting prisoners out early, and said the "shoplifting epidemic" adds £50 to the weekly food shop for British families. He said Reform would "come down on shoplifters like a ton of bricks". 1 2 The Daily Mail linked the video to the first day of the government's early-release scheme, in which it says 700 inmates were freed in England and Wales, and quoted Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticising it. 2 The government, through Justice Secretary Alex Norris, says it was forced to act because prisons were running out of cells, and that it is building 14,000 prison places. 2

The Daily Mail cites House of Commons Library data analysed by the Liberal Democrats showing recorded thefts in England and Wales rose 133 per cent between 2020-21 and 2024-25, with 19.8 per cent of offences in 2024-25 resulting in a charge and 6.5 per cent for the Metropolitan Police. The Met says its positive outcome rate rose to 14 per cent and that reported London offences fell 3 per cent between April 2025 and March 2026. 2 GB News notes this is not Jenrick's first such stunt: in May last year he posted footage of himself confronting fare-dodgers on the London Underground. It says fines to fare evaders rose by nearly 60 per cent in the following month but later dropped to a near-record low, according to FOI data it obtained. 1