Bill restricting Post Office closures defeated in UK Parliament; MP tells Wikinews why she supported the bill

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Yesterday, the U.K. Labour Party successfully prevented a bill restricting the closure of post offices from being passed, although the governing Labour party only had a majority of 20 due to 19 of its MPs’ voting against the party line. One of these was Diane Abbott, who told Wikinews why she voted for the bill.

She told Wikinews: “Post offices are central spaces within a community.” She added that they provided invaluable services and a point of contact for vulnerable people. She also claimed they were more important in places like her constituency which has a large number of elderly people.

She added: “they are particularly important [in] places in areas like Hackney where there are fewer bank branches and a large elderly population who rely on the post office to collect their pensions.” She was “appalled” to hear of the Post Office closures in her constituency.

The Shadow Minister for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Alan Duncan of the Conservative Party was also contacted by Wikinews. He directed Wikinews to his website for more information on his opinion. On his website he says that it is “simply not good enough” to allow post offices to close.