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Post Office Closures

No, I will not give way for a while now. The hon. Member for Rutland and Melton asked why the Post Office imposes restrictions on what sub-post offices can do and went through a long list of them, as did one of his hon. Friends. He might be interested to hear what Mr. Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of SubPostmasters, said during the recent Select Committee inquiry in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, West and Penistone. He was asked why all these unreasonable restrictions were in place, and he said:"““I make it absolutely clear, there are no restrictions on what existing sub-postmasters can do.””" We have dealt with that canard as well. If the Post Office operated—[Hon. Members: ““Wrong quote.””] It is not the wrong quote; it was made only a few weeks ago. [Interruption.] It is entirely relevant because the hon. Gentleman argued that, if all the unreasonable restrictions could be lifted, somehow all these businesses could suddenly move from making losses to making profits. That is exactly the hon. Gentleman's point, and it is entirely wrong.