Lib Dems Slam Labour "Hypocrisy" Over Post Office Closures

10.29.37am GMT Mon 3rd Mar 2008

Farid Ahmed has challenged all local politicians to add their weight to the campaign against Post Office closures by speaking out against the Government on this issue.

Farid Ahmed, the Liberal Democrats parliamentary spokesman for Walthamstow, has hit out at local Labour representatives for performing a 'u-turn' on the issue of Post Office closures.

The comments came after local Labour MPs and councillors appeared to backtrack by condemning the closure of six local Post Offices under the Labour Government's programme of 'network reinvention'.

Local Labour leader Clyde Loakes was in the news this week after being accused of "an appalling display of hypocrisy" over his opposition to the closures, after he led his Labour colleagues in REJECTING a Liberal Democrat Council motion aimed at protecting Post Office services on behalf of the elderly and vulnerable.

However, your local Lib Dems can reveal that Cllr Loakes is not the only Labour representative guilty of a performing a u-turn on post office closures. It has emerged that, just last year, Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard - alongside his neighbour Harry Cohen MP - voted AGAINST an opposition motion raised in Parliament which condemned the programme of closures and urged the Government to give our post offices greater freedom to develop their businesses.

In a letter to the Waltham Forest Guardian, Farid Ahmed claims that this apparent reversal of rhetoric by the local Labour Party is a case of "better late than never".

He added: "It's difficult not to come to the conclusion that these voices of dissent would have been more effective if used where they would have been heard the loudest - within the walls of Parliament".

National newspapers attacked Labour MPs as "hypocrites" last week after it emerged that a third of Cabinet Ministers are voting for the closures in Parliament whilst campaigning against them in their own constituencies.

Farid Ahmed, alongside your local Lib Dem councillors and campaigners, is urging residents to make their voices heard as part of the party's 'Save Our Post Offices' campaign, and has challenged all local politicians to add their weight to the campaign against the closures by speaking out against the Government on this issue.

Liberal Democrat campaigners have again stepped up their efforts on behalf of residents in response to the news that three Post Offices in Walthamstow are under threat as part of the Labour Government's Post Office closure programme, with branches set to close in Chingford Road, Forest Road and Orford Road.