Hove Conservative MP Mike Weatherley has set up a committee to tackle some of the threats facing small shopkeepers.
Mr Weatherley has established the All Party Parliamentary Group on Retail and Business Crime to look at issues such as shoplifting
The group’s aim will be to use questions, debates and petitions in the House of Commons to ensure that traders’ concerns are heard by ministers.
The National Business Crime Forum chairman Parminder Singh, who is also national president of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, said: “Retailers will not sit idly by as their shops shut down due to the cumulative effect of the ‘victimless’ crime of shoplifting or work under the constant fear of assault.”
Mr Weatherley said: “The APPG is a cross-party forum for MPs to get together and discuss retail crime issues in their constituencies and across the country and look at ways in which these can be addressed through the mechanisms of Parliament.
“It is vital that retailers take responsibility for making their elected representatives work for them.”
