Royal Mail sell-off on hold amid fears of MP rebellion

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Royal Mail sell-off on hold amid fears of MP rebellion

Gordon Brown is shelving plans to sell-off the Royal Mail.

In a major climbdown, the Prime Minister looks unlikely to press ahead with the controversial Postal Services Bill this month.

There is no date for the legislation on the parliamentary order papers in June.

It could be introduced in July, but there would be almost no time to get the Bill on the statute books before the Queen's Speech. Mr Brown has been forced to put the selloff on ice amid warnings that more than 160 Labour MPs are prepared to vote against it.

A Downing Street source told the Mirror: "The vote will not go ahead. We are going to find a way of fudging it."

Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle, one of the leading opponents of the part-privatisation, said: "It is not going to come at all. It's dead, buried, gone. It will be dressed up as there is no buyer prepared to offer the amount of money the Government is looking for.

"How can you sell an asset owned by the taxpayer for less than its real value?"

Mr Hoyle said the Bill had originally been scheduled to have its second reading on June 9 but had now "disappeared completely".

It comes after the Communications Workers Union warned they would end their £1million annual Labour donation in protest at the sale.

But a source close to Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, who championed the Bill, said they are still "looking to fix a date".