Royal Mail must put public service above profit

A committee of MPs has referred Royal Mail to the communications regulator Ofcom for breaching its Universal Service Obligation, which requires them to deliver letters across the country six days a week.

The report from the Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Select Committee is incredibly damning and puts pressure on the company at a time when its track record on its treatment of staff is also in the spotlight.

I spoke with BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme earlier today, calling for radical change at the organisation.

Royal Mail needs to reflect on these findings. It is clear that Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson is responsible for much of the repeated failures at the company and must go.

Fundamentally, Royal Mail needs to go back to providing a public service instead of focussing on profit. People across Glasgow East and right across Scotland - particularly in rural areas - deserve better.

Postal workers deserve to be treated better too. The Communication Workers Union has been standing up to poor pay and conditions and they have my full support tin doing so. I will continue to stand with posties on picket lines. We cannot allow employment terms and service standards to be eroded.

Ultimately, this is privatisation in action. The Royal Mail - once something to be proud of - is being run into the ground by a fixation with profit over people and it cannot be allowed to continue.