CBO00100006_074 - Letter of Stephen Byers, Secretary of State to Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chanceller of the Exchequer, HM treasury RE: Post Office Network

Evidence on official site

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The-Rt Hon Stephen Byers MP
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

Secretary of State

Departinent of

The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP ‘Trade sed lodastry
Parliament Street Direct tine
LONDON

SW1P 3AG

July 2000

Iam grateful to you and other colleagues for your agreement to the terms of my
statement to the House last week announcing publication of the PIU report on the
future of the Post Office counters network, and our response to it. It is pleasing
that reactions have in the main been favourable, and that in particular we achieved
a key objective of securing public support from Colin Baker, General Secretary of
the National Federation of Subpostmasters.

Much remains to be done, however. There has been a good deal of criticism of
Colin’s stance from elements within the NFSP who believe that the commitments
made in our response to the PIU report lack sufficient substance (and this will be a
recurring theme until we are able to attach £m signs to specific funding packages
when we announce SR2000, about which I have written separately). Unless we are
able to show regular and tangible progress with implementation of the package,
there is a real risk that Colin will be unable to hold the line with his Executive
Council and the wider membership. A resumption of the Federation’s campaign,
accompanied by accusations that the Government had shown itself to be cynical
and duplicitous on this issue would be politically disastrous, and I therefore look to
EA colleagues to cooperate fully in taking forward urgently the various elements of
the package.

Nowhere is this more true than in respect of the Universal Bank. A post office
based solution for benefit recipients who do not want or cannot have their benefits
paid into a conventional bank account after the migration to ACT has been at the
centre of the NFSP’s campaign, and support for the Universal Bank at the Post
Office has been the comerstone of our response that has so far enabled Colin Baker

i dti

Deperuneut of Trade end Industry

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to hold the line with his Executive Council and membership. We cannot of course
control press and other media speculation, but this has added substantially to the
Post Office’s difficulties in driving forward its negotiations with the banks, and has
come very close to derailing completely NFSP support for the package.

I must therefore look to colleagues not only for their practical help in driving
forward the various elements of the package, but also to ensure that in any contact
with the media through press offices and other means there is a single and coherent
Government message, based on our agreed policy as set out in my statement to the
House. In cases of uncertainty or difficulty, my officials stand ready to assist.

I am copying this letter to the Prime Minister and our EA colleagues, to Sir Richard
Wilson, to Suma Chakrabarti and Sebastian Wood in the Cabinet Office and to
Geoffrey Norris at No. 10.

STEPHEN BYERS

TOTAL P.@3