Britain's top police officer calls on Labour to force phone companies to make it harder to sell mobiles snatched off London's streets

Britain’s most senior police officer is calling on Labour to force phone companies to make stolen devices much harder to sell on, GB News can reveal. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has been on a drive to make mobile devices less desirable to steal ever since London was hit by a phone theft epidemic, which has seen more than 600,000 phones snatched over the last decade.GB News was given exclusive access to follow one of Scotland Yard's most elite units as they joined the fight against the phone thieves.The interceptor teams are highly skilled pursuit officers, able to chase down the increasing number of e-scooters and motorbikes used in street-level phone snatches. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say During the latest 10-day operation, hundreds of specialist Metropolitan Police officers carried out proactive patrols and raided addresses linked to suspected phone thieves.Dozens of suspects, from street-level criminals to members of organised crime groups, were targeted in the raids.Sir Mark Rowley issued an ultimatum in March that called on the telecoms sector to take action to make phones less desirable to steal by making them impossible to reuse.The Commissioner today revealed Scotland Yard has now started sharing data with Apple.The tech giant will track whether stolen handsets get reconnected to a phone network after they are taken.But Sir Mark wants the mobile sector to go further and is urging the Home Secretary to introduce fresh legislation.He is calling on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to require all phone companies to publish data on stolen devices and reconnections.Scotland Yard asked the Home Office to begin preparing legislation to introduce minimum technical standards so that any phone stolen in the UK is effectively unusable.LATEST DEVELOPMENTSPolice scrap 'Islamic blasphemy law' after free speech uproarOne in three Britons fear 'two-tier policing' after Henry Nowak murder, damning poll revealsEx-detective calls for full 'common sense' inquiry into police failings after death of Henry NowakOn patrol with the interceptors, GB News was given a firsthand insight into the challenges of tracking down highly agile phone thieves, who often use e-scooters, mopeds and other motorbikes to make a rapid escape through city streets.The interceptors will often patrol in packs, able to box in and stop escaping vehicles.They also have specialist motorbikes to chase down the phone robbers and other criminals using London's road network.Their use has seen a significant reduction in mobile snatches, with thefts almost halved in Westminster, the Met's most troublesome borough for phone crime.The international trade in stolen phones is worth many millions of pounds, with a device stolen in London every seven to eight minutes.Scotland Yard has also seen adverts on Snapchat offering children as much as £380 to steal a single iPhone, with a bonus of £100 for stealing 10.Sir Mark Rowley told GB News: “I gave an ultimatum to tech firms – take urgent steps to prevent stolen phones from being resold and reused, or we will call on Government to step in and legislate.“For the first time, we are routinely sharing intelligence on stolen devices, building a joint picture of how these phones move and whether they reappear in circulation.“That partnership is already making a difference. If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them. We are driving up the risk for offenders while cutting off the reward.”Scotland Yard said that the number of thefts and robberies where phones were stolen fell by 14,000 in the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026, a reduction of 18 per cent on the previous year.The force added that the first five months of this year saw 6,700 fewer, a drop of 20.6 per cent.Westminster, where between 69 per cent and 72 per cent of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones, has seen a reduction of 45.8 per cent so far this calendar year.Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show only a fraction of devices taken in London are ever returned to their owners. Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter