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Royal Mail hits back at Government over postal votes row
Royal Mail has hit back at criticism from a Tory minister over reports of delays to postal vote delivery, insisting there is “no backlog” ahead of the General Election.
Postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake was said to be “urgently” investigating a failure to get ballot packs to people in some constituencies in time for polling day on Thursday.
He suggested Royal Mail should have anticipated extra demand for postal votes during the summer holidays amid fears some could be left disenfranchised by the issues because they are already overseas.
But in a statement issued on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the service said: “We have no backlog of postal votes and, whilst we are not complacent, we remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time will be delivered prior to polling day.
“Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network.
“We would welcome a review into the timetable for future elections with all stakeholders to ensure that the system for printing and administering postal votes before they are handed to Royal Mail works as smoothly as possible.”
But sources in Royal Mail told the PA news agency later on Tuesday that Mr Hollinrake has not yet raised his concerns with the postal service to date, in apparent contrast to Ms Caulfield’s remarks.
It comes after Mr Hollinrake told the Telegraph that he did not think there was any issue at play “other than Royal Mail being competent and fulfilling their obligations under the USO (Universal Service Obligation)”.
