WALTHAMSTOW: MP slammed over post office "hypocrisy"

8:42am Monday 17th November 2008

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A LOCAL MP has been accused of hypocrisy after voting against a motion to preserve post office services which he had previously supported.

Local Liberal Democrat leader John Macklin slammed Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard for abandoning his support for a Parliamentary motion condemning a government decision to put the Post Office Card Account (POCA) system out to tender.

The POCA service pays benefits into 4million bank accounts and supporters of the motion warned of the damaging impact of post offices losing more business.

Mr Gerrard signed the motion in the Summer but did not support it during a House of Commons vote last week, prompting an angry response from Cllr Macklin.

Cllr Macklin said: “Residents will have every right to feel let down by Neil Gerrard’s flip-flopping on the future of local Post Offices. This is just another example of local Labour members saying one thing about Post Offices and then voting in the exact opposite way.

“Their behaviour on this issue over a long period of time has been nothing short of insulting to residents.”

However, Mr Gerrard refutes claims that he has abandoned his support for Post Offices and described the motion as “meaningless”.

“They had a motion down for debate, but nothing was going to be decided. All that was going on was the Liberal Democrats were taking the wording of a motion by a Labour back-bencher and trying to score political points by putting it down in their name,” he said.

He added: “I am in full support of Post Offices and will continue to support them.”

The Government ministers have since decided to close the bidding process for POCA, with Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell telling MPs that he would do “nothing to put the network at risk”.

The National Federation of Post Offices had warned that a further 3,000 post offices would close if it lost the POCA contract.

Mr Gerrard said: “The contract will help get more people into post offices. So it is a good step in the right direction.”

Waltham Forest’s Liberal Democrats celebrated the Government “u-turn”.

Cllr Patrick Smith said: “This welcome climb down over the future of the Post Office Card Accounts perhaps suggests that Labour are finally beginning to realise that they cannot simply ride roughshod over the wishes of the communities served by these crucial facilities.”

Ministers announced last year that 2,500 Post Office branches must close to preserve the network's £150 million-a-year subsidy and cut its estimated losses of £4 million a week.