Performance of Royal Mail

Dave Robertson Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)]

Before I start, I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests in relation to the Communication Workers Union.

It is over a decade since the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats oversaw the privatisation of Royal Mail, and it is clear to residents in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages and—if this busy Chamber is anything to go by—to people across the country that the transition was grossly mishandled. Those parties failed to plan for Royal Mail’s long-term future in a market that was already showing signs of dramatic change. Now we see the results: late delivery after late delivery, leading to countless missed hospital appointments, GP appointments, court hearings, credit card bills—the list is almost endless.

The post remains an essential public service, and we need to secure its future. I am proud that Labour MPs up and down the country are leading on this, and I could thank countless Members for their hard work, I am especially grateful to my hon. Friends the Members for Redditch (Chris Bloore) and for Corby and East Northamptonshire (Lee Barron), with whom I have been working closely to co-ordinate a campaign in Parliament.

I am sure that I speak for all Labour Members when I say that we understand the serious and complex challenges facing Royal Mail, but too often the response we get from the company when we raise concerns, and by extension its response to our constituents, is nothing short of dismissive. When we tell Royal Mail that yet another resident has missed cancer treatment or received a threatening message from a debt collector for an undelivered bill, we are too often told that there simply is no problem. Just today, I have had an email from Royal Mail assuring me that everything will be fine in time for Christmas, despite the fact that it has not met its delivery obligations at the Lichfield office at any point in the last five months. It beggars belief.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent contribution to this important debate. Does he agree that this seems to be a deep cultural issue within Royal Mail? Not only is it in denial, as far as I can tell, that there is a problem with the service, but when Members of Parliament visit their local delivery offices, it cleans house from top to bottom to present as if there is no problem, only for us to then subsequently discover that there continue to be serious issues with the service to our constituents.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dave Robertson]

I have experienced that at first hand as well. I went to one of the arranged visits to my local distribution office, with various people from the Royal Mail comms department there. By the time I got back to my office, I had had three emails from posties at that delivery office saying that every single postal worker went out that day with two routes on their back, just to ensure that the mail was out of the way and I did not see it. It is a real problem that Royal Mail does not want to grasp this.

[Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend’s leadership on this issue has been magnificent. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) for calling this debate, which I am grateful to contribute to, albeit briefly. To hear my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) talk about, “It’ll be okay for Christmas,” and to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch talk about the low morale of workers within Royal Mail, does he agree that part of this debate this evening—we started on a good footing with my hon. Friend—is giving thanks to posties for their incredible hard work? That is not only because they work under incredibly hard circumstances, but because they are the heart of our communities, often noticing any differences. When they see a person who normally gets letters not answering the door, they often are the ones who raise the alarm in the local community.

[Dave Robertson]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about the value that posties have in our communities not just in delivering post, but more widely. We saw it over covid where the only person a lot of vulnerable residents would see in a week would be their postie. She makes an important point about their importance to our communities.

Returning to Royal Mail’s inability to grasp the nettle and to the fact that it sends us emails saying, “Everything’s fine,” “Don’t worry,” and “Nothing to see here,” that is tantamount to telling every single MP it has sent that communication to that our constituents are lying. Royal Mail needs to change its approach radically and rapidly.

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Dave Robertson]

I will make some progress.

Royal Mail needs to own the true scale of the problem and the genuinely felt anger—that is essential. I look forward to discussing this with the Royal Mail CEO when he meets Labour MPs in Parliament next month. Labour Members do not want to stand up in this Chamber and attack Royal Mail, and we are certainly not attacking postal workers.

We recognise the scale of the challenge facing the industry. The number of letters sent in the UK has halved since the company was privatised, while the number of parcels has risen dramatically, fuelled in many cases by the growth in online shopping. Virtually all the parcel companies competing with Royal Mail, and oftentimes using its network, use a bogus self-employment model for their workers. That means Royal Mail is competing in a market where it has a fundamental disadvantage, and we should not want to encourage the model that these parcel companies are using—it is bad for workers, consumers and the taxpayer. Too many parcel companies pay a pittance for an unmanageable workload, exhausting drivers who cannot provide a quality service to customers as they race to complete rounds that are frankly impossible, and the public purse is ripped off in the process. While Royal Mail pays £650 million a year in national insurance contributions, many of these companies do not pay a penny.

The Government are now consulting on upgrading the rights of these parcel delivery drivers, and it is a start, but we need to go further. We need true parity between Royal Mail and its competitors, a level playing field where every company pays a fair price if it chooses to use the Royal Mail network. We need Royal Mail to take a long-term view of its workforce. New entrants get far worse terms, and that is fuelling a retention crisis with a staggering 400 posties leaving the company every week. It may help pinch a few pennies now, but if Royal Mail cannot keep its hard-working staff, the business is destined to fail.

I am sorry to say that we need to look again at the delivery model. Royal Mail is currently rolling out DM26, as it calls it, but our posties tell us the process is already chaotic, the workload is unmanageable and it is not a long-term solution. We need to heed the recommendation of the Business and Trade Committee to look at giving Ofcom stronger powers to regulate Royal Mail. It concerns me that the regulator has no solution beyond more fines for Royal Mail, which are clearly not working. We need to build on the Government’s “golden share” in Royal Mail and think about an ownership model for the future, with the voices of customers and workers right at its heart.

[Hannah Spencer (Gorton and Denton) (Green)]

Last Friday, I spent the morning with the brilliant, dedicated postal workers at my local delivery office in Denton. Yet people across the constituency regularly tell me they are not receiving post, despite the staff clearly doing everything they can to keep the service going under immense pressure. Does the hon. Member agree that the privatisation of Royal Mail has clearly failed and that the Government must take urgent action to restore a reliable postal service that also treats workers fairly?

[Dave Robertson]

The hon. Member makes an important point. As we have heard from many Members today, it is not the posties; it is the system that they are being asked to work in. We need to do a number of things; there is no single answer that will solve this. We need a suite of different responses that lead to a proper outcome.

We need to think about bringing Royal Mail and the Post Office back together and look creatively at opportunities for profit, such as Post Office banking hubs. We need to look at the pay and bonuses of Royal Mail’s senior leadership. We are already doing that with the water companies; I do not see why it would be inappropriate in this case. When a private company delivers a public service, it must be held to the highest standards. Just like with those water companies, we cannot see bosses’ pay balloon while workers struggle and customers are let down.

I am not arrogant enough to stand here and say that I have all the answers. These ideas are all born out of consultation with organisations across the sector, and that is why it is so important that we get all the parties around the table to share those ideas so we can turn them into action. Two weeks ago, the Communication Workers Union wrote to the Secretary of State calling on him to hold an emergency summit to discuss Royal Mail’s future. I am glad to hear that the meeting will go ahead, and I ask the Minister that my hon. Friends the Members for Redditch and for Corby and East Northamptonshire and I are included in those discussions. Back-Bench MPs and our constituents must have a voice in them.

Royal Mail was founded over 500 years ago. It is a great British icon and an essential public service. We cannot and must not be the generation of politicians who allow it to fail.