UK GOVERNMENT MORE INTERSTED IN SAVING ITS SKIN THAN POST OFFICES

 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS REVEAL POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

 

SNP Postal Affairs Spokesperson, Mike Weir MP, has today (Thursday) published the responses to written parliamentary questions tabled to the UK Government, which reveal that the government put pressure on Post Office Ltd to delay publication of politically damaging closure plans ahead of local elections in England and Wales next year.

 

Although there are no elections in Scotland the knock on effect has seen the North East area plan put back from late April to after the May elections.

 

Mr Weir had asked the Post Office Minister Pat McFadden when the Government instructed the Post Office to impose the freeze. The Minister has confirmed that it was in early November, by which time the government were experiencing a serious slide in poll ratings following the cancellation of the anticipated autumn election.

 

Commenting on the revelation Mr Weir said:

 

“The Post Office first published their timetable in the early summer, yet it was not until the government got into serious political difficulty in the autumn that they suddenly discovered the need for “purdah” and instructed the Post Office to delay the announcements.

 

“This is clear political interference and gives the lie to the UK Government’s defence that the whole programme is a commercial matter for the Post Office. The government clearly can and do interfere when it suits them.

 

“Evidently, they saw the huge political damage that closures will inflict on them and have pushed the bad news to the other side of the English elections. This is sheer bare faced hypocrisy by an increasingly desperate administration.

 

“Local Post Offices are far too important to be treated in such a cavalier manner. The UK government should take real action to protect them rather than try to protect its own political skin. This discredited programme should be halted now and local communities given a real opportunity to consider the future of their postal services.”

 

ENDS

 

Contact SNP Westminster Press: 0207 219 0074

 

The text of Mr Weir‘s Parliamentary Questions, and the Government’s responses, are detailed below:

 

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Government (a) decided to defer the Post Office network change programme in England and Wales and (b) informed and instructed Post Office Limited to impose a freeze on running any public consultations prior to the May 2008 municipal and local authority elections in England and Wales. [173482]

 

Mr. McFadden: Post Office Ltd was advised in early November of the need to apply the principles set out in the Cabinet Office guidelines relating to public consultations in the period preceding local elections.

 

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform who was responsible for the decision to instruct Post Office Ltd. to postpone the post office network change programme pending the May 2008 municipal and local authority elections in England and Wales. [173252]

 

Mr. McFadden: Cabinet Office guidelines clearly state that consultations should not be launched, and decisions relating to them announced, in an election period. Successive Administrations of both parties have observed these arrangements for many years.