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The Conservative minister in charge of selling off Royal Mail was firmly against the organisation’s privatisation just four years ago, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The Conservative minister in charge of selling off Royal Mail was firmly against the state-owned business’s privatisation just four years ago, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Michael Fallon, the Business and Enterprise minister, told one of his constituents that he did not agree with plans by the Labour Government to sell off a stake in the company.
The emergence of the letter, sent in February 2009, is an embarrassment because Mr Fallon is in charge of selling off the national mail organisation before March next year.
Labour said Mr Fallon was being a hypocrite for continuing to support the sale, while a Tory thinktank urged Mr Fallon to rethink his plans.
In the letter to a member of postal union the Communications Workers Union, Mr Fallon was apparently asked to sign a Commons early day motion or EDM on the privatisation.
He replied: “I do not sign all EDMs but I will look this one up. I certainly do not [underlined] support the Government’s plan for privatisation. I have taken your views up with Lord Mandelson and with our shadow Business secretary Mr Kenneth Clarke MP.”
Despite the offer to look at the motion, Mr Fallon is not thought to have signed it. Labour accused Mr Fallon of being a hypocrite, adding that the letter was “shocking” and it undermined the reasons for selling off Royal Mail.
Ian Murray MP, shadow Minister for Postal Affairs, said: “It is shocking that Michael Fallon, the minister responsible for pushing through the government’s Royal Mail fire sale, was criticising the idea only a few short years ago when in opposition and this hugely undermines the government’s case for privatising the cherished service.
“For the Minister, who was specifically given the Royal Mail brief - where it had previously been under the remit of Lib Dem Business Ministers - to have earlier opposed privatisation is deeply hypocritical.
“Indeed, it transpires that the Mr Fallon did actually agree with the late Baroness Thatcher we should not, in her words, ‘privatise the Queen’s head’.
“The hardworking staff of Royal Mail have legitimate grounds to feel highly aggrieved given that only last week the Minister threatened that the Royal Mail could fall into foreign hands if trade unions continue to fight its flotation.
“The fact that ministers have already resorted to scare tactics shows how weak their case is. The Government’s plans are ill-thought are a blatant attempt to spare the blushes of the Chancellor and Prime Minister and their failing economic plan that will borrow £245bn more than anticipated.
“Ministers have failed to demonstrate why a sale this year will deliver best value for the tax payer and consumers and small businesses who rely on the service across the country.”
Ben Harris Quinney, chairman of the Tory think-tank the Bow Group and a director of the Conservative Grassroots group, said that Mr Fallon’s 2009 comments in the letter were in tune with the instincts of most people in the UK.
He said: “The instinct of the majority of the country is to oppose the sale of the Royal Mail. For both practical and political reasons the issue requires more careful examination and debate to ensure the Conservative Party gets this right.
“The revelations around Michael Fallon's prior concerns over any privatisation of Royal Mail shows that the minister shared this view as recently as 2009, and it is a great pity that he has chosen to pursue this policy without adequate national debate.
“However, it is not too late to postpone this sell off or to make further considerations to the form it should take.
"I would ask the Minister to listen to his colleagues, his constituents and his conscience and, for the greater good of the country, to consider it again.”
Billy Hayes, the CWU's general secretary, added: “It's good to see the minister agrees with the majority of the British public. We know his heart isn’t in the sale and its time for him and the government to think again.”
Sources close to Mr Fallon said that in 2009 he was against Labour’s plan to sell a stake in the company to another investor, and the lack of any provision of shares for postal workers.
The Coalition’s plans have guaranteed that some of the shares will go to postal workers. Ministers also favour a privatisation on the London Stock Exchange, in which members of the public can buy shares in Royal Mail.
Mr Fallon told The Daily Telegraph on Thursday: “The previous Government's plans did not include shares for Royal Mail staff and that is why I would not have voted in favour, although in the end there was no vote.
“The Coalition is committed to both giving Royal Mail access to private capital and ensuring employees benefit from a sale of shares.”
