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 29 August 2008 06:53 BST

Conservative plans to suspend post office closures defeated

Wednesday, 19 Mar 2008 20:04
The government plans on closing 2,500 post offices in the coming year
A Conservative party motion to suspend the government's planned closure of 2,500 post offices has been defeated in the House of Commons.

In a vote at the end of an opposition day debate this evening, the Tory plans were defeated by just 20 votes, with 288 to 268 ministers against the suspension.

The closeness of the vote suggests that a number of Labour MPs either abstained from the vote or backed the opposition plans.

Liberal Democrat ministers had earlier announced their backing of the Conservatives' motion.

The government plans on shutting 2,500 post offices nationwide in the following year to reverse weekly losses of nearly £4 million.

Business Secretary John Hutton earlier backed the government's plans dismissing the Tory motion as being based on "false hopes, flawed economics and opportunism".

"Postponing difficult decisions is rarely a sensible course of action to take," Mr Hutton said.

"It would result in more uncertainty for those postmasters who are ready to accept the compensation offer."

Mr Hutton claimed that it was an "inescapable" fact that role of the Post Office has now changed due to technology and consumer behaviour.

"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," he said. End of story


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