WILL Straw, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Rossendale, joined members of retail union Usdaw to campaign for respect for shopworkers.

The Freedom From Fear campaign event took place the day after the Government blocked a Labour amendment to the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which would have introduced a specific extra offence of assaulting a worker serving the public.

Mr Straw said: “There is a real need to address the scourge of workers being assaulted, and I am concerned that assailants are getting away with relatively lenient sentences.

“Like the thug, given a suspended sentence for assault, who went out to celebrate his ‘lenient’ sentence and launched a vile racist attack on a shopworker, assaulted her by pulling out chunks of her hair and walked free from court again.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had too many of our own incidents in Rossendale, with one member of staff at Tesco put in hospital after being attacked by a customer.

“These cases do not suggest to me that the issue of violence against shopworkers is being taken seriously.”

Coun Karen Creaser, who works at Tesco in Rawtenstall, is among those organising a local campaign to tackle the issue.