Brian Leishman

It is a pleasure to have you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I refer Members to my registered interests. I thank the hon. Member for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed) for securing the debate. “Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders. Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water”— I could not agree more with that quote, which was leadership pledge No. 5 from the now Prime Minister, then simply the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras, when he was bidding to become the leader of the Labour party. Public ownership really does offer the best solution for ending the managed decline of Royal Mail. It would put an end to the reductions in service provision; to the cuts to resources, including recruitment and retention issues; to the prioritisation of parcels over letters; and to the disgraceful imposition of low wages and inferior conditions for new starters in 2022. Postal workers across Alloa and Grangemouth are sick of their working conditions. Every day, they see a national institution being ravaged by private capital. No wonder morale is at an all-time low. We, as Back-Bench or Front-Bench Labour MPs, are here as trade unionists. What is happening to our postal workers is against everything we believe in. Our postal workers need us to be in this place for them. It is not too late for us to step in to stop the asset-stripping of Royal Mail and nationalise it. What would a Labour party in opposition say about the situation? I would put everything I own on that Labour party agreeing with leadership pledge No. 5.