MPs set to debate legal safeguards to protect Royal Mail

The government has been urged to hold a parliamentary debate on the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s possible £4.5 billion takeover of the Royal Mail.

Andy Carter, the Conservative MP for Warrington South, has written to Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, to request a debate on Kretinsky’s bid for the Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS).

Kretinsky, who is worth an estimated $9.3 billion, has expressed an interest in buying IDS for 320p per share, but has been rebuffed by the company’s board of directors.

IDS’s board has said the offer “significantly undervalues” the business, which comprises the Royal Mail’s UK operations as well as General Logistics Systems (GLS), a European parcel service based in the Netherlands.

Kretinsky has been in talks with IDS