Labour MPs rebel in post office closures vote

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... ost319.xml

Anger over post office closures has boiled over in the House of Commons when Labour MPs staged a mass rebellion over the controversial closure plans.

The Government narrowly won a motion which had called for the divisive closures to be halted.

At least 20 Labour MPs failed to support the Government, including two former ministers, in one of the biggest rebellions of Gordon Brown's premiership.

Many Labour MPs who backed the Government, having opposed local closures in their constituencies, were accused of "deceit" by the Tories.

Earlier this week The Daily Telegraph revealed that 90 Labour MPs and ministers - one in four of the entire Parliamentary party - have been campaigning locally to save their local post offices, prompting claims of "rank hypocrisy".

The rebels who voted with the Tories were said to include two former Government ministers Kate Hoey and Frank Field, as well as leading backbenchers Diane Abbott and Paul Flynn.

Alan Duncan, the shadow Business Secretary, said: "The Government has just squeaked home. It's astonishing that it was only a majority of 20.

"The power of argument has overcome the power of their whips. 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.'

"People will not understand how they can behave like this, especially as it will be the most vulnerable in our communities who stand to lose more from the closure of local Post Offices.

"The debate has exposed the deceit of the MPs who pretend to support their constituents but then say something completely different back in Westminster.

"The next time they knock at the door asking for their vote, I'd ask their constituents to bear in mind the false basis of their campaigning."

In total 556 MPs voted, 268 in favour of the Conservatives motion to stop the closures and 288 voted against.

The closure plan is now likely to become a touchstone issue in the upcoming May local elections as well as those for voting in the London Mayoral elections.

The plans to close the post offices have proved deeply divisive, with tens of thousands of people backing to a campaign by The Daily Telegraph to save their local branches.

However MPs from all parties vented their anger in the House of Commons in a debate organised by the Tories to suspend the plans to close 2,500 post offices.

The motion had no legal force but was the first opportunity by MPs to debate the closure plans. It was designed to pressure ministers to suspend the closure plans.

The Tory motion had attracted support from MPs in all parties. The DUP's Gregory Campbell (E Londonderry) urged the Government to "go back to the drawing board" and invest in rebuilding the rural network.

Labour's Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) raised concerns in his constituency where "we are just wondering if there is not a closure programme without telling us."

Labour's David Borrow (S Ribble) said he had been "tempted" to vote with the Tories but their move would simply delay the whole process and in the absence of any "new money" the same number would close in the end.

Labour former minister Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Highgate) added she had no intention of voting with the Tories despite having concern about proposals to close three "highly efficient, well-used" post offices.

She warned the elderly and disabled would be most severely hit and urged the Post Office to put forward a cost-benefit analysis to ensure genuine consultation.

Tory Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold) said the consultation process in the closure programme - the fastest in Post Office history - had been "underhand" and Conservative former minister Tony Baldry said it was "wholly fraudulent".

Business Secretary Mr Hutton said there was an "inescapable fact" that had to be accepted, "however difficult" - the role of the Post Office had changed because of technology and consumer behaviour.

He added: "These have both combined to reduce very substantially the numbers of people using their local sub-post offices and increased substantially the losses being incurred by the Post Office."

Meanwhile it has emerged that Post Office managers must co-operate fully with innovative plans by councils to save their local branches from closure.

More than 50 councils now want to save threatened branches, offering rescue packages of £18,000 per branch over three years from council tax receipts.

However some local authorities claim that Royal Mail, which owns the Post Office, is standing in the way of such plans by withholding key information about branches until a consultation period has elapsed, so the councils cannot assess whether they are viable businesses to take on.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7305903.stm

Here is a list of the 19 Labour MPs who voted on a Tory motion calling for a halt to the closure of 2,500 post offices:

Diane Abbott (Hackney North & Stoke Newington)

Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North)

John Cummings (Easington)

Andrew Dismore (Hendon)

David Drew (Stroud)

Frank Field (Birkenhead)

Paul Flynn (Newport West)

John Grogan (Selby)

Kate Hoey (Vauxhall)

Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North)

John McDonnell (Hayes & Harlington)

Eric Martlew (Carlisle)

Alan Meale (Mansfield)

Gordon Prentice (Pendle)

Alan Simpson (Nottingham South)

Geraldine Smith (Morecambe & Lunesdale)

Sir Peter Soulsby (Leicester South)

David Taylor (Leicestershire North West)

Mike Wood (Batley & Spen)

Independent Labour MP Robert Wareing (Liverpool West Derby) also voted with the Tories.

[norbert]

Good on Geraldine Smith , she's ex POL , usually goes with the New Labour Whip but she didn't half roast Leighton and had him backtracking over those first two unprofessional "letters" he sent out .

Flakey Frank Field eh ? , he's bitter that he never went further with New Liebour , none of them will get Junior Minister positions , confined to the back benches forever now .

What's interesting is how many abstained .RMG being underhand -well I never !

[nelson]

Tory leader David Cameron did not take part in the vote. A Conservative Party spokesman said he had been forced to return home to look after his children.

Thats how serious that man is about the closures

The quote from BBC site

[Lounge Lizard]

Tory leader David Cameron did not take part in the vote. A Conservative Party spokesman said he had been forced to return home to look after his children.

Thats how serious that man is about the closures

The quote from BBC site

That's how serious he, or his party, is about politics !

[bandit650]

Tory leader David Cameron did not take part in the vote. A Conservative Party spokesman said he had been forced to return home to look after his children.

Thats how serious that man is about the closures

The quote from BBC site

That's how serious he, or his party, is about politics !

Well what would anyone expect from a torie it was this goverment who started the chip away at the postal service all those years ago and has spent most of its time when in goverment taking the profit from this company and miss useing it for what ever it deemed more important instead of putting it back and investing in the best postal service in the world, the envy of all who saw it as the market leader nobody did it like we could,now look whats happenening.
Cameron is only in it for what he can get the money,the power,the cudose that he thinks you can get,full of his own self importance,not in it to make the world a better place.

[Lounge Lizard]

Tory leader David Cameron did not take part in the vote. A Conservative Party spokesman said he had been forced to return home to look after his children.

Thats how serious that man is about the closures

The quote from BBC site

That's how serious he, or his party, is about politics !

Well what would anyone expect from a torie it was this goverment who started the chip away at the postal service all those years ago and has spent most of its time when in goverment taking the profit from this company and miss useing it for what ever it deemed more important instead of putting it back and investing in the best postal service in the world, the envy of all who saw it as the market leader nobody did it like we could,now look whats happenening.
Cameron is only in it for what he can get the money,the power,the cudose that he thinks you can get,full of his own self importance,not in it to make the world a better place.

Who else cycles a short distance to work once a week followed by a car carrying his briefcase, and then thinks the highway code doesn't apply to him and he's exempt from road traffic laws ? And he still expects the electorate to take him seriously !

[pinstripe]

No politician should be allowed out unaccompanied by a responsible adult, never mind being allowed to run (ruin) the country.
As Billy Connolly once said, "Anyone who wants to be a politician should automatically be barred from ever becoming one."
The days have long gone when our MP's actually tried to help those who voted them into power, now it doesn't matter what party, they are only interested in furthering their own careers. I can only think of a few MP's who do what they are elected to do, most notably, Tony Benn, one the the last decent men in Whitehall.

[DGP1]

Who else cycles a short distance to work once a week followed by a car carrying his briefcase, and then thinks the highway code doesn't apply to him and he's exempt from road traffic laws ?

That would be most postmen on bikes then

[Lounge Lizard]

Who else cycles a short distance to work once a week followed by a car carrying his briefcase, and then thinks the highway code doesn't apply to him and he's exempt from road traffic laws ?

That would be most postmen on bikes then

Yes, but most postmen do something useful for society.

[DGP1]

Who else cycles a short distance to work once a week followed by a car carrying his briefcase, and then thinks the highway code doesn't apply to him and he's exempt from road traffic laws ?

That would be most postmen on bikes then

Yes, but most postmen do something useful for society.

Yes but the more Cameron goes through red lights more bigger the chance of him getting run over

[bandit650]

Who else cycles a short distance to work once a week followed by a car carrying his briefcase, and then thinks the highway code doesn't apply to him and he's exempt from road traffic laws ?

That would be most postmen on bikes then

Yes, but most postmen do something useful for society.

Yes but the more Cameron goes through red lights more bigger the chance of him getting run over

Now theres a happy thought a more than usless MP getting run over!

[Lounge Lizard]

Who else cycles a short distance to work once a week followed by a car carrying his briefcase, and then thinks the highway code doesn't apply to him and he's exempt from road traffic laws ?

That would be most postmen on bikes then

Yes, but most postmen do something useful for society.

Yes but the more Cameron goes through red lights more bigger the chance of him getting run over

Conservative politicians are more likely to get caught out in red light districts than by ignoring red traffic lights.