A PRIVATE mail firm – delivering in parts of Liverpool – is being used as a "Trojan horse" to force striking Royal Mail workers to give up, an MP claimed yesterday.

Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle claimed Royal Mail was happy for Dutch firm TNT's trial service to succeed, because it piled pressure on its own staff to accept controversial changes to working conditions.

And he attacked Business Secretary Peter Mandelson for failing to force Royal Mail into talks to avert the damaging two-day strike planned for the end of this week. TNT Post launched its "final mile" service in north Liverpool about a year ago, with orange-clad postmen and women delivering business letters from the likes of Sky, British Gas and Barclays.

The city is the only place where the trial is running – because, TNT says, an exclusivity contract enjoyed by Royal Mail makes it uneconomic on a national basis.

Now the firm has urged the Government to recognise that the looming strike, planned for Thursday and Friday, shows the danger of a monopoly provider – and allow it to offer a rival service.

Yesterday, TNT Post's chief executive, Nick Wells, said: "If anyone can do it, TNT can. It's a massive challenge on a huge scale, but the reality is we have the customers, appetite and resources."

But Mr Kilfoyle said there was no need for the TNT service in Liverpool, insisting he was "reasonably happy with the regular service from my local postman".

And he claimed: "I'm a little concerned, because it is unnecessarily provocative.