On 11 December 2001, Jonathan Djanogly, the Member of Parliament for the Huntingdon Constituency, attended the Trade and Industry meeting with Consignia. Mr Djanogly said, "The setting up of Consignia by the Government in January of this year, constituted the Labour Government's main attempt to reform UK postal services. However, it became increasingly clear during the meeting that the situation of the Post Office is going from bad to desperate."
Amongst the points raised in the meeting were:
- A half year post-tax loss of £281 million
- Up to 30,000 jobs to be cut in the New Year
- 63,000 strike days in the last year constituting more than 50% of all strikes in Britain over the same period
- Suggestions of charging for deliveries before 9.30 am and scrapping the second post
- Allegations by Postwatch of almost 1 million items of mail being lost each week
- 350 sub post offices closing over the last 4 years rising to 550 in the last year
- The National Federation of Sub Postmasters estimating that proposals for the new universal bank will lead to 1/3 of sub post offices closing
"Four post offices have closed in the Huntingdon Constituency in almost as many months. This is an extremely serious problem that has direct and significant implications of the day to day lives of thousands of local people. I and my Conservative colleagues fully intend to continue highlighting Labour Government failures to provide a half decent postal service. "