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THOUSANDS of postal votes have failed to be delivered by Royal Mail with ministers calling for an urgent probe.
It is claimed at least 90 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales are experiencing problems with getting paper ballots before Thursday’s election.
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This morning a minister blasted the delivery disaster as “not acceptable”, adding Royal Mail needed to be more “competent”.
Some local councils have resorted to launching emergency drop-in centres for voters yet to get their postal vote packs.
Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, said: “We urge Royal Mail to do all they can to make sure that postal votes get to the right people at the right time, and time is completely of the essence now
“There’s a resourcing issue.
“They have recruited extra people and I welcome that but they’ve got to make sure they’ve got the right number of people to deliver the mail at busy times like this.
“It’s not acceptable it’s sat in sorting offices.
“It needs to be delivered to people’s houses. So they need to put more people on to do that.”
He added: “I don’t think there’s an issue here other than Royal Mail being competent.
“If people want to choose to vote by post, that’s perfectly fine.
“In my view, certainly from a logistical point of view, that should be something that’s available to anyone who wants to do that.”
The minister added he was made aware of issues in his own constituency, Thirsk and Malton, where he has a 25,000-vote majority.
This morning Maria Caulfield, a health minister, told Sky News this morning: “Kevin is taking this very seriously. He’s in direct contact with the Royal Mail.
“It doesn’t seem to be an issue in my constituency, but I know a number of colleagues where people haven’t received their postal votes and are worried about that.
“Kevin is investigating this urgently. I know there’s extra resources going into this to try and do a sweep of all the sorting offices and make sure they’re out there.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also said it was “on all of us” to get the vote out.
At a campaign stop in Nottingham, he told reporters: “I am concerned about the postal ballots because it is really important in this election that every single person has the ability to vote and I hope vote for change.
“And so I think it’s on all of us on a sort of non-party political basis to say we must do everything we collectively can to ensure that those ballot papers get to people.”
Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho told LBC: “It’s absolutely critical that people can cast their vote.
“I have had a few people locally say they haven’t had their postal votes through.
“I know the Royal Mail has hired extra people and it’s absolutely crucial that they do because this really matters.”
And referencing a YouGov poll that revealed only a small number of voters changing their mind could sway the election, she added: “It’s only 130,000 people across the country that can change the outcome of those seats that they’re in.”
The SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Scots constituents had also reported trouble.
He told the BBC: “I’m massively concerned about that.
“Like almost every candidate across Scotland that I believe to be the case.
“I’ve had numerous emails from people who have not received their postal ballot, that’s simply not good enough.”
A Royal Mail spokesman 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.”
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