Labour criticise government's privatisation of Royal Mail as 'botched'

Labour claims that the government’s controversial sale of Royal Mail short-changed taxpayers by hundreds of millions of pounds.

15:49 10 January 2014

Three months after the floatation, Labour is now accusing the government of a botched privatisation of Royal Mail saying that taxpayers have been short-changed by hundreds of millions of pounds. The opposition added that the postal group’s share price was more than 70per cent higher than the 330p stated in October.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna, said: “On the day the Royal Mail fire sale went ahead Vince Cable was clear that the Tory-led Government should be judged on the basis of the price of Royal Mail shares after three months.

“Three months later, the Business Secretary's dismissal of the sharp rise in share price as 'froth' has been demolished and increasingly it looks like the taxpayer has been left short-changed at a time when services are being cut and families are struggling with David Cameron's cost of living crisis.

“We know that Vince Cable considered, then rejected, the option of floating Royal Mail at a higher price which would have brought in more cash for taxpayers.

“He still has serious outstanding questions to answer on the price he could have received three months ago in respect of what increasingly looks like a botched privatisation.”