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This week, Jonathan Reynolds, the Labour Trade Minister, who has perfected the art of turning his beard into an apology for his lack of charisma or ideas, approved the takeover of Royal Mail by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský’s (below) EP Group of companies.
As political transformations go, that’s a pretty big one. It’s important to note what was behind the words.
In 2019, Jeremy Corbyn’s party said: “We will stop Crown Post Office closures and bring Royal Mail back into public ownership at the earliest opportunity, reuniting it with the Post Office and creating a publicly owned Post Bank run through the post office network to ensure every community has easy access to face-to-face, trusted and affordable banking.”
In 2024, Jonathan Reynolds claimed that his “agreement with Royal Mail’s prospective new owners [is the] latest example of government working hand in hand with the private sector to improve crucial public services” and that the “agreement backs the Government’s Plan for Change, creating the strong foundations needed in Britain’s supply chain to kickstart economic growth and deliver for workers.”
I believe that Labour’s 2019 manifesto was honest and genuinely people-focused. The intention was to provide a postal service that people could rely on, with the bonus of a Post Office hub in every community that might also have provided services from a bank that intended to meet peoples’ needs and not the desire of bankers for profits.
In contrast, Jonathan Reynolds’s (above) statement reads like total drivel. That’s partly because Labour had nothing whatsoever to do with this proposed takeover, which was already in progress when the July General Election took place.
However, even worse than that is the fact that, quite astonishingly, Boris Johnson’s government passed a law that would have allowed Jonathan Reynolds to have blocked this takeover in the national interest, and Reynolds did not use it. Instead, he got half-baked assurances that the Royal Mail’s head office will remain in the UK and, as a result, it will continue, at least in theory, to pay corporation tax here. In practice, as any experienced accountant knows, finding ways to work around it is incredibly easy. Just look at the tax contributions of other foreign-owned companies in the UK, which almost always seem to find ways of shifting their profits abroad, and you will see exactly what I mean. Reynolds has, in other words, been taken for a ride by someone who saw his wide-eyed innocence coming from a mile off.
READ MORE: How foreign investors extract wealth from Scotland
Three massive points stand out from this. The first is the most obvious and is that the Labour Party that people once knew and voted for no longer exists. Jonathan Reynolds, with his devotion to private sector business that must have its way whatever the cost to ordinary people, is typical of those ministers who are now “Labour In Name Only” – or LINO for short. The pretence that any of Starmer‘s motley crew is a left-of-centre politician with the interests of people close to their heart is ridiculous. Even worse than the Tories before them, Labour only exist now to serve the interests of the wealthy.
Staggeringly, my second point makes this even more clear. When Boris Johnson’s government thought there were reasons why it needed powers to stop foreign takeovers of key public companies, like Royal Mail, which might threaten the future management, control, viability and credibility of an essential public service, Labour clearly do not. Even worse, they are actually claiming credit for selling out on this issue.
Thirdly, then, it that it is now clear that this Labour government is utterly shameless. Scotland already knew that, of course. The last Labour leader in Scotland with any credibility was, maybe, Donald Dewar. Since then, we have had right-wing apologist after right-wing apologist running Labour in Scotland, seeking only to secure electoral support on the basis of their opposition to the Union, with none of them ever being able to explain for a moment what the benefits of that Union might be. Anas Sarwar is just the latest in this long line of hopeless Labour leaders and has totally sold out to the likes of Jonathan Reynolds.
As readers of this column will know, I am more than willing to turn my fire on the SNP when it is appropriate, as it too often is. But somewhere, deep inside it, I think at least some SNP politicians retain an essential belief in a political idea. In their case, it is independence coupled with a clear commitment to the people of Scotland.
In contrast, I don’t think Labour have any ideas at all. More than that, since Jeremy Corbyn‘s demise, people can see through Labour’s shameless behaviour, as evidenced by their treatment of their own MPs who dare to speak out against any part of their “Great Leaders” hazily outlined version of politics.
READ MORE: Scotland more attractive to foreign investment than UK and Europe
If politics is to play a role in 2025, people have to be at the heart of its concerns. The Tories have never had that concern. Labour did, but it has now entirely forgotten it. If the LibDems in Scotland ever find out what they’re about, please let me know. Meanwhile, while I will not pretend that the pro-independence parties are without their problems because they all have some, I think they believe that the people of Scotland matter.
So, could they make this clear by collectively committing themselves to the idea of a Scottish Mail service? Might they even make that symbolically important? In that context, I’d like to suggest a revenue raiser for them. Selling Scottish Mail “stamps”, which would serve no purpose except raising revenue for the independence cause but which could be fixed to the letters of those in favour of the independence campaign, might be a very public indication of belief in just what an independent Scotland might stand for, including publicly owned services run by a publicly orientated government intent on delivering for the people of Scotland?
