Tory post office closures bid fails

12 April 2012

The Government's majority was slashed to just 20 as the Tories failed to halt the compulsory closure of up to 2,500 sub-post offices.

A move to suspend the closure programme was rejected by 288 votes to 268, after an embarrassing Labour revolt for Gordon Brown. Early indications were that 20 Labour MPs joined the revolt by backing the Tory motion.

Labour MPs had been urged to rebel by shadow business secretary Alan Duncan, who said 90 of them, including seven Cabinet ministers, had campaigned against proposed closures in their own constituencies.

The vote, at the close of a stormy five-hour debate, will come as a warning shot for the Prime Minister, whose 67-strong majority was cut by more than two thirds.

Earlier, Mr Brown said he wanted to see good Post Office services in every part of the country but stressed the organisation was losing £500,000 a day. At question time, he said the Tory motion did not propose extra money for the Post Office, adding: "Unfunded promises are empty and hollow promises to the people of this country."

Opening Tory-initiated debate, Mr Duncan said the closure programme was being "rammed" through and "community is being pitted against community" in a bid to keep their branch.

The fact that so many Cabinet ministers were campaigning to save their local branches "made a mockery" of the principle of collective responsibility.

He called on Business Secretary John Hutton to suspend the closure programme "to give much hope to many hard-working postmasters whose enterprise, hard work and service to their community deserves better than they are getting from the Government".

Mr Hutton condemned the Opposition motion as a "cocktail of false hopes, flawed economics and opportunism of the highest order".

With a drop of nearly 20% in the number of people using post offices over the last two years, postponing difficult decisions was the "wrong thing to do".

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