Lord Mandelson is urging the prime minister to save the Post Office network by allowing it to provide government services and financial products, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian. Mandelson suggests that the current economic downturn and "recent events in the financial services" present an opportunity for the Post Office to take on a new range of tasks. In the letter to Gordon Bro...

The Guardian has news of Labour’s further inconsistency in their plans for the Post Office network: Lord Mandelson is urging the prime minister to save the Post Office network by allowing it to provide government services and financial products, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian. Mandelson suggests that the current economic downturn and “recent

Sheffield Labour welcome recent proposals from Government for a publicly-owned Post Office, or ‘People's Bank'. Since the economic downturn people do not seem to trust traditional high-street banks like they used to, unlike the Post Office which remains a trusted institution. Therefore, the government plans to expand the financial services on offer at the Post Office and create a &...

Lord Mandelson has pressed the prime minister to save the Post Office network by allowing it to offer government services and financial products, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian newspaper.

Plans for the Post Office to start offering financial products and services are outlined by the government.

Ministers are to hold a series of meetings with Labour and Tory backbenchers to discuss what extra services the Post Office network could provide, including helping credit unions, dealing with payment of energy bills and the provision of identity-card services. They are also expected to dust down a Cabinet Office report into potential future services for the Post Office. The move follows the gover...

From The BBC. Lord Mandelson has said he “believes in the future” of the Post Office amid reports it will be encouraged to offer more financial and government services. The BBC understands ministers are keen for the service to develop new areas of business such as providing pictures for new passports and ID cards.

Commenting on today’s BERR Select Committee report on post office outreach services, Liberal Democrat Shadow Business Secretary, Sarah Teather said: "Outreach services are a poor relation to proper post offices. The Government seems to think it can get post offices on the cheap this way. However, even outreach services need to be properly funded. "At this rate many areas will end up with no ...

Wayne David, the Labour MP for Caerphilly, welcomed the decision of Post Office Ltd to "look again" at the future of Gilfach Post Office in the Rhymney Valley. This is the stark truth. I only wish the Nationalists would put in half as much effort into fighting for local services as they do in attacking Labour MPs". The truth is Wayne you voted with the Labour government to reorganise the post offi...

There is a certain irony in the UK Government creating the post office card account as a stop gap measure to protect post offices from its own policy of taking Government services away from them, only to find that it may not be able to re-award the contract to the Post Office because of competition rules. In this sense, the UK Government was the creator of its own mess. Today's decision to ca...