Hundreds Protest at Tool Theft Rally

HUNDREDS of tradespeople took part in a rally to protest against tool theft in London on Monday 3 February.

Tradespeople gathered in London in their vans calling for greater measures to be put in place to prevent tool theft from vans.

Led by an armoured tank, a convoy of trades’ vans blasting their horns slowly drove through Westminster past the Houses of Parliament.

Tool Theft Rally

In 2023, there was a tool theft crime every 12 minutes and £98 million worth of tools were stolen. Only 6% of tools were returned to their rightful owner.

The thefts often have a huge impact on tradespeoples’ livelihoods, preventing them from carrying out work. Tool theft can lose tradespeople customers and even put them out of business. It pushes up business insurance premiums and impacts the economy.

They also affect tradespeople’s emotional and mental health. One participant at the rally who wished to remain anonymous commented: “I work for myself, so there’s no one to bail me out when this happened to me. It was a huge struggle to replace the tools the first time. The second time, I wanted to give up. No one was interested in finding the scum that did it. It was only my brother lending me some money that stopped me just jacking it all in.”

Make Tool Theft Harder

Now there are calls for police to crack down on the resale of tools at car boot sales and on online marketplaces. Other action, by van and tool manufacturers is being demanded to make break-ins and stolen tool resale harder.

Speaking to Fix Radio, Labour MP Amanda Martin said, “Police need to record tool theft more consistently so that these crimes shows up and greater action is taken. We know it’s not just local thieves that commit this crime but organised criminals.

“I think Keir Starmer will take notice of this rally and support us. I we are to build 1.5 homes this parliament, we need tradespeople. We need qualified people and there’s a huge skill shortage. Raising issues about why people will not join these professions is important.”

Matt Vickers, Conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Crime and Policing, whose father and brother are builders, added, “These absolute scumbags who turn up at car boot sales to sell these tools need to get caught. They need to feel the consequences and at the moment that’s not happening.”

>>Read more in the news about tool theft