Hewitt points to a Tory legacy of failure to reform

With ballots on strike action from postal workers planned, Mr Whittingdale says new "union militancy" threatens to cause more damage to Consignia.

Since the government has passed its Postal Services Act, there had been 62,908 working days lost through industrial action, he said.

Now the Post Office had reported a loss for the first time in 25 years and sub-post offices were closing in record numbers.

"It is extraordinary that a national institution could have been brought so low in such a short time," said Mr Whittingdale.

Hybrid complaints

There was no reason why such problems need to have happened, he argued, praising the hard work of Consignia's 200,000-strong workforce.

"The Post Office has complained that its present status of being half in the public sector and half out of the public sector is unsatisfactory and has contributed to its problems."

Union militancy growing, says Whittingdale

Mr Whittingdale added that he had backed Tory plans to privatise the Post Office but Labour opposition had meant those proposals could not be implemented.

He warned too that the plans to make it compulsory to transfer benefits into claimants' accounts electronically were a "sword of Damocles" that threatened more closures of sub-post offices.

The Tories' attack during the opposition day debate marks another phase of their attempt to put Labour under pressure on public services.

Responding to the attack, Ms Hewitt countered with her own offensive on Conservative "mismanagement" of the Post Office.

The previous decade of Conservative government had seen 3,500 post offices closed and hundreds of thousands of days lost in industrial action.

'Clear goals'

The Tories had refused to provide either reform or investment during 18 years in plan, she argued.

Now Labour was delivering on both those desperately important issues, Ms Hewitt told MPs.

The trade secretary outlined the government's goals for the post offices' future, saying Labour had given the postal service more freedom to borrow and invest.

"We want a universal service that everyone can rely on," she said. "We want faster and more reliable mail deliveries."

Other aims included a strong network of modern post offices and effective partnership between management and unions.

Ms Hewitt was pressed by Labour backbencher Lindsay Hoyle to agree the government would take no profits from Consignia until the company was out of trouble.

The minister said no decision would be made until Consignia delivered its strategic plan for the future.

Mail moves

Consignia says it is considering plans to give priority to business letters, as well as dropping the second delivery.

It is looking to trial the idea in a few places during coming months.

The company says later deliveries are not uncommon elsewhere in Europe and most people are out at work in any case when the morning mail arrives.

It is still promising to have 95% of post delivered by lunch time.