Mail chiefs stamp out Colin Fox's photo with posties

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General Election 2010: Mail chiefs stamp out Colin Fox's photo with posties

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ROYAL Mail bosses refused to deliver Scottish Socialist candidate Colin Fox's election leaflet – because it featured a picture of him on a picket line with striking postal workers.

The former Lothians MSP joined the strikers outside the Sighthill mail processing centre when members of the Communication Workers Union staged a walkout in protest at moves to privatise the Royal Mail.

But when Mr Fox, who is standing against Chancellor Alistair Darling in Edinburgh South West, included the photo in the election address to be delivered free to every voter, the Royal Mail said they could not approve it.

The company said it was because their logo was in the picture – on the strikers' jackets and the building behind – and they did not allow it to be used on party literature.

But Mr Fox claimed the ban was "political skulduggery".

He said: "It's totally out of order we should have to be politically vetted by Royal Mail. They have no right to tell us we cannot show a picture of me standing on the picket line."

He said the SSP had complained to the Electoral Commission and was consulting lawyers about suing Royal Mail.

All candidates are entitled to a freepost election communication in their constituency.

Mr Fox said: "We put our election communication together as a four-page colour newsletter and sent it to the Royal Mail elections unit so they can check it complies with the law and the design requirements.

"They made a few suggestions and we sent it back on Thursday. Our printers were waiting to go with it first thing on Friday.

"We were phoning and e-mailing Royal Mail all day and finally got an e-mail at 4:30pm rejecting the communication. They refused to deliver it."

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "Royal Mail Group is a publicly-owned company and is absolutely neutral at all times and scrupulously so during a general election campaign.

"It was requested that the Scottish Socialist Party remove the Royal Mail logo. They agreed to do so and the leaflet has now been approved."

The Electoral Commission said it had no power to intervene.