BACK OUR POST OFFICES SAYS EASTLEIGH'S MP HUHNE

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 4th Jul 2008

Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne today backed the campaign to ensure that people can continue to run their post office card account from their local post office.

Pictured here with Jon Dudley, the sub-postmaster at Boyatt Wood in Eastleigh, Mr Huhne said that the Liberal Democrats want the contract for the new card account to be awarded to the post office.

Mr Huhne backed the campaign, showing some of the thousands of names who have signed cards to save the post office card account.

"Some banks have good coverage in many areas, but nowhere has the network everywhere that the post office can muster. It would be madness to give the card account to a competitor as it would also undermine the finances of many local post offices" said Mr Huhne.

Mr Huhne estimates that more than 6,500 local residents have card accounts, which are used by 4.3 million people across the whole country and are worth about £1 billion to post offices between 2003 and 2010.

"There is a lot of anger that the Government just does not recognise the social value of the Post Office. Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed plans to close 2,500 branches across the UK this year on top of the 4,000 already closed under this Government and 3,500 closed by the Conservatives" said Mr Huhne.

In recent years, Mr Huhne said that the Government had put obstacles in the way of a series of post office services including TV licence payments, passport services, and driving licence renewals.