Royal Mail

Debate between Michael Fallon and William Bain

Thursday 12th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fallon]

By the end of the privatisation process, the Royal Mail will have multiple owners, including the work force itself, which will own 10% of the business. We have chosen not to sell Royal Mail to another mail operator or a single private equity owner, but to make this a public offering so that Royal Mail will have millions of new owners. The hon. Lady should also consider the opportunities for Royal Mail in international markets. Royal Mail already has a subsidiary, GLS, and there will be huge opportunities for it to win more business overseas and across Europe.

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

The hard-working staff of Scotland’s largest sorting office, based in my constituency, are very much against these plans. Is the Minister aware that they have been joined this morning by TNT, which described his plans in The Daily Telegraph as

“preposterous…bad for consumers, bad for business”?

Is he not increasingly isolated from what is in the best interests of the industry and of the country?

[Michael Fallon]

It sounds as though TNT is a little nervous about a more competitive and better financed Royal Mail. We will see how many of the hon. Gentleman’s constituents working at that sorting office choose to opt out of the share scheme in the next few weeks.