MPs loyal over POs

Mar 21 2008 By Jonathan Walker

PLANS to close one in six urban post offices have been defended by Labour MPs.

They backed the Governmentsupported closure programme which will see 2,500 post offices axed.

A review of services in Birmingham is set to take place in June and one in six city post offices could go.

A Conservative Party campaign against the closures scored a major victory this week when a proposal to suspend the programme pending further consultation was defeated by just 20 votes in the House of Commons.

There were 19 Labour rebels who voted with the Tories. No West Midlands Labour MPs rebelled.

Birmingham MP Steve McCabe (Lab, Hall Green) said some post offices needed to close in order to ensure the ones that remained had enough business to keep going.

He said: "I think it's a grave mistake to take such a stubborn approach to this issue. The fact is that, if we don't stem the losses we will wreck the post office network."

Post offices are losing around £3.5 million a week and there are four million fewer customers than two years ago.

The network currently receives a subsidy of £150 million a year from taxpayers.

Fellow Birmingham MP Richard Burden (Lab, Northfield) said there were no "simple answers", but post office customers were now able to use services by phone or over the internet.

Conservatives said the scale of the Labour rebellion exposed deep opposition among Gordon Brown's MPs to the closure programme.