Leighton has `one year to deliver’ at UK Royal Mail

THE ROYAL MAIL’S star management team, led by Allan Leighton, the prolific serial director, and Adam Crozier, the former head of the Football Association, should be sacked within a year unless they can improve standards of service, according to an influential Member of Parliament.

Martin O’Neill, the chairman of the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee, told The Sunday Telegraph that the political pressure to get delivery standards to acceptable levels is now intense.

“I don’t think anybody is under any illusion that if by this time next year service levels haven’t picked up, the Government will be very impatient with the people who have failed to deliver the goods,” he said.

The Government is the sole shareholder in the Royal Mail.

His comments came after the Royal Mail admitted that it had missed every one of its 15 delivery targets set by Postcomm, the industry regulator. At the same time the Royal Mail announced a profit of pounds 220m – its first for four years.

O’Neill added: “I just think that at this stage the Royal Mail has earned itself another year free from a radical change of management under a Labour government, but they are very aware that their time is limited.”

An executive at the Royal Mail said: “Everyone at the Royal Mail is totally focused on improving quality of service and delivering the renewal plan.

“Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier made that very clear last week.”