NEW: Labour frontbencher demands government inquiry into “alarming” Royal Mail situation

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

29/11/2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LABOUR FRONTBENCHER DEMANDS GOVERNMENT INQUIRY INTO “ALARMING” SITUATION AT ROYAL MAIL

A senior Labour politician has demanded a government inquiry into the “alarming” ongoing situation at Royal Mail, as he calls into doubt the ongoing management of the company.

Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy Jonathan Reynolds has written to Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Grant Shapps to address his “extreme concerns” over the conduct of Royal Mail management.

In the letter, Reynolds argues that the country deserves an explanation as to why Royal Mail management defied “difficult” post-pandemic financial forecasts to give over £400 million to shareholders, as well as ending the subsidising of Universal Service Obligation services – a common in most European postal services.

Furthermore, Reynolds added that “it is unclear why a business that was thriving a matter of months ago is now threatening to cut thousands of jobs, with a devastating impact on those workers and their families.

“This in itself must raise serious questions about how the business is being run.”

If serious questions were not asked, Reynolds expressed his concern that the future of Royal Mail as a “thriving” company is put at risk.

CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said: “Our members will be grateful for Jonathan’s intervention, and will entirely agree of the need for a formal inquiry.

“Big questions need to be answered about how such a healthy company has been allowed to sink into such deep trouble.

“It will be the hope of our members that this letter to Shapps should open the wider political world up to the deeply worrying situation at Royal Mail, where a 500 year old national institution is being seemingly broken into bits by an out-of-control management.”

ENDS

The full text of Jonathan Reynolds’ letter can be found here.

For more information or press enquiries, please contact CWU Press Officer Marcus Barnett at mbarnett@cwu.org.