A SMALL firms pressure group has sent Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw a New Year plea to tackle crime.

The Federation of Small Businesses, which has several hundred members in Lancashire, has written to Mr Straw urging him to crackdown on crime in the high street including shoplifting and vandalism which costs retailers hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

And the FSB believes the Government should also do more to introduce identity cards to help in the war against crime.

The letter to Mr Straw is one of a series sent by the FSB to cabinet ministers.

Some of the other New Year resolutions the pressure group wants the Government to agree to include setting a "sensible" minimum wage level and allowing exemptions for small firms from certain parts of the Social Chapter.

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