Post Office apology for ‘closure’ penalties

The Post Office on Friday apologized for threatening postmasters with the loss of thousands of pounds in compensation if they did not stick to an official script on closures.

The Conservatives accused Royal Mail bosses of using secret police tactics “to demand Maoist conformity to their line”, after the letter, from Sue Huggins, the Post Office’s director of the network change programme, was leaked to the press.

The letter, and an accompanying “lines to take” document, sent to all postmasters, set out official answers to questions customers might ask about 2,500 planned closures. It then went on to threaten recipients with financial penalties, including losing compensation packages, if they did not co-operate.

It warned that undercover staff would be sent around the country to check postmasters’ replies to questions.

On Friday, the Post Office apologized and insisted it would not be carrying out anonymous checks.

The Conservatives seized on the letter’s publication. Alan Duncan, shadow business and enterprise secretary, said: “It is shameful that the government, which is closing thousands of Post Offices, should blackmail hard-working subpostmasters into parroting the political spin of Gordon Brown to customers.”

George Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, said it accepted the letter had been “an error of judgement” by the Post Office.

Plans to close 2,500 post offices were announced by the government in May after Alistair Darling, then trade and industry secretary, said that the network could not be sustained with losses at GBP 4 m a week.