Shadow business secretary demands inquiry into Royal Mail bosses for wrecking company

THE shadow business secretary has called for a government inquiry into the behaviour of Royal Mail bosses embroiled in a bitter dispute with their workforce.

Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds wrote to Business Secretary Grant Shapps to express “extreme concerns” at the company’s conduct, saying the country deserves an explanation as to why Royal Mail management defied “difficult” post-pandemic financial forecasts to hand more than £400 million to shareholders.

“It is unclear why a business that was thriving a matter of months ago is now threatening to cut thousands of jobs, with a devastating impact on those workers and their families,” Mr Reynolds wrote.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward welcomed the letter. “Big questions need to be answered about how such a healthy company has been allowed to sink into such deep trouble,” he said.

“It will be the hope of our members that this letter to Shapps should open the wider political world up to the deeply worrying situation at Royal Mail, where a 500-year-old national institution is being seemingly broken into bits by an out-of-control management.”

Royal Mail has been contacted for comment.