Labour MPs accused of "hypocrisy" over post office closures

Mar 21 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

LABOUR MPs in the region were accused of hypocrisy yesterday after fighting to save local post offices - only to back the controversial closure programme at Westminster.

The Conservatives fiercely criticised six Merseyside and North Cheshire MPs who failed to vote to halt the closures pending a review, in a crunch vote that slashed Labour’s majority to just 20.

They said the MPs – Joe Benton (Bootle), Ben Chapman (Wirral South), Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby), Louise Ellman (Liverpool Riverside), Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston) and Christine Russell (Chester) – had campaigned against axing post offices in their constituencies.

Four of the six MPs voted with the government to continue the closure programme, while the remaining two – Mr Benton and Ms Curtis-Thomas – abstained late on Wednesday night.

Alan Duncan, the Tory business spokesman, said: “The hunt will now be on for all those Labour MPs who have pretended to support their local post office and then done a runner when they had a chance to make a real difference.”

But the Labour MPs accused the Conservatives of “playing political games” – pointing out the Opposition had no funding proposal to make little-used outlets financially viable.

Instead, the Tory motion merely proposed suspending any closures while the access criteria was reviewed, the consultation period lengthened and “business opportunities were explored further”.

Worst of all, the Labour MPs said, the Conservatives refused to back the £150m government subsidy that ensured no more than 2,500 sub-post offices would close.

They also insisted there was no hypocrisy in recognising the need for some little-used outlets to close, while arguing Post Office Ltd had picked the wrong ones in some circumstances.

Nineteen Labour MPs defied a Labour whip to vote with the Conservatives to suspend the closures, including Frank Field (Birkenhead), as did Bob Wareing (Liverpool West Derby), who now sits as Independent Labour.

The revolt slashed Labour’s 67-strong majority to just 20.

It came despite a last-gasp government plea for the Post Office to give “serious consideration” to proposals for local authorities to run branches earmarked for closure. Up to 50 councils are thought to be interested.

After the vote, Mr Duncan targeted 90 Labour MPs – including the six in the region – who have campaigned to save threatened branches in their constituencies.

But Mr Chapman hit back, saying: “A vote for the government amendment was not a vote for individual closures – that is a matter for the Post Office (and they, as we’ve seen, can get this wrong).

“It was a vote for a sustainable network and against the hypocrisy of a party which closed more than 3,500 Post Offices during its last period in office and is not, even now, proposing a penny of investment in them.”

Mr Miller said: “The Tory motion was opportunistic nonsense, because it did not address putting extra money in to what is already a heavily subsidised network.”

And Ms Curtis-Thomas said: “I did not vote with the government because I have been fighting to keep two post offices open, so I chose not to vote at all.”

Mr Benton, Mrs Ellman and Mrs Russell could not be contacted.

The government argues it has invested £2bn in the post office network since 1997 and is committing a further £1.7bn until 2011.

This week, Gordon Brown said post offices were losing £500,000 every day and argued the 2,500 planned closures would still leave 11,500 outlets.

What the MPs said > > > >