Post offices in Parliament to escape Royal Mail axe

All three post offices in the Houses of Parliament are to escape the mass cull of London branches, the Standard can reveal.

The Royal Mail has provoked outrage after announcing plans to axe 169 post offices in the City.

But it has decided to exempt the offices in the Commons despite them being separated by only a few 100 metres.

MPs today accused the Royal Mail of "hypocrisy". They claim the decision to keep Parliament's branches open makes of mockery of the criteria being used by the Royal Mail which says branches can be axed as long as there is another one within a mile.

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said the Royal Mail should look again at its plans.

He said: "What is good for the goose should be good for the gander. I cannot fathom why, when MPs have three post offices within 100 metres of each other, and some people have none within a kilometre of them, the latter were shut.

He added: "It seems as though Members' Priority Service has won the day again."

A fifth of the London network will be axed by this summer.

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said the branches in Parliament were crown post offices and were part of the directly-managed national network.