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Postal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, without going into what we discussed previously, I agree with the amendment. Anything that gives the Post Office a secure future has my total support. We are talking here about the possibility of increasing the figures in the future and applying them to the areas of the country that are most in need. When we previously debated this matter, I received an assurance from the Secretary of State about planned post office closures. However, we did not get Conservative support for that from the person speaking from the Opposition Front Bench. Are the Conservatives in favour of that position or not? When the noble Lord replies from the Conservative Front Bench, can we have an assurance that they join the rest of us in being against future post office closures? The Opposition have made a big case of saying that they support the Post Office and that they are against closures, but we have not heard from them here. We heard from the Secretary of State, who gave me that assurance, and that is why I did not table another amendment. He has repeated that assurance but, as I said, we have not heard anything about the position of the Opposition Benches. Therefore, I should like to know from whichever noble Lord is speaking from that Front Bench what their position is on future closures.