Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has called on the police to take action after accusing a London car boot sale of becoming a “carnival of criminality”.
The Conservative politician has claimed that thousands of tools are being sold at “rock-bottom prices” with some sellers wearing balaclavas at a Hounslow car boot sale.
Mr Jenrick claimed tools had the names of tradesmen still etched on them during a recent visit to the sale, while police officers were “nowhere to be seen”.
Tradesmen are being shafted by an epidemic of tool theft.
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) November 11, 2025
It’s destroying their livelihoods.
We must have their backs. pic.twitter.com/z4JhiZgv3J
In a post on X, Mr Jenrick wrote: “You didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out they were selling stolen tools.
“When I put that charge to one particularly aggressive seller, he boasted he’d been doing this for 22 years, and that the police wouldn’t get him.
“Meanwhile, the public are being told that it’s all rosy. That they’ve never had it better. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) shows crime is down over the last 30 years so you should, in fact, count your lucky stars.
“That’s cold comfort to the victims of crime, who are statistically far less likely to have their crime solved.”
It comes after the Standard revealed that nearly 100 robberies are happening every day in the capital.
Some 80,297 robberies were recorded across England and Wales in the 12 months to June, 33,752 of them were recorded in London. That compares to 35,169 in the capital last year, which the ONS says is a drop of four per cent.
Mr Jenrick has insisted that the police “have stopped bothering altogether” and have been “effectively waving the white flag to thieves”.
In a video clip shared by Mr Jenrick, A member of staff from Hounslow car boot sale said they do not permit anyone to sell stolen goods and that leaflets are handed out to warn traders on their way into the site.
The Met Police has been contacted for comment.
