Royal Mail could still be (part) privatised

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by René Lavanchy
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Further to my colleague Tom Miller’s post, I thought I’d clarify that Labour has not promised not to try again to part-privatise Royal Mail after they abandoned it last year, a story I broke.

The manifesto says: “For the future, continuing modernisation and investment will be needed by the Royal Mail in the public sector.” What does it mean? Well I’ve made some inquiries and it means… just that.

The Communication Workers Union would have liked to rule out part-privatisation, just as was agreed at Labour’s National Policy Forum at Warwick two years ago. But they didn’t get their way, whether they asked for it or not. The door remains open to part-privatising, and it’s safe to assume Business Secretary Lord Mandelson hasn’t lost his keenness for it. Indeed the FT quotes him saying so.

So for the unions, it’s very much a case of watch this space… though they seem pretty confident that the policy stinks and Labour wouldn’t go near it in a new parliament.

P.S. Alan Johnson, who ambiguously said there was “a future for Royal Mail in the public service”, is of course a former CWU general secretary.