Angry postal workers pose a risk to the government’s referendum campaign by threatening to dump the pro-remain EU leaflet described as “one-sided propaganda”.
The reaction of postal workers to the government’s EU leaflet — the enticingly-titled “Why the Government Believes That Voting to Remain in the EU is the Best Decision for the UK” — is split. Some are said to be angry that David Cameron will increase their workload by forcing them to deliver his 16 page message to every household in the United Kingdom, some 27 million homes.
An even more extreme reaction has been suggested by some particularly rebellious postal workers, reports The Sun. They are threatening to dump copies of the EU leaflet, described by Justice Secretary Michael Gove as “one-sided propaganda”, with one saying:
“I want to leave the EU and don’t really want to assist the campaign to remain. I resent being forced to be part of this propaganda machine.”
Some have used trade union chatrooms to argue for additional pay for the extra service, which is already costing the taxpayer £9.3 million, saying they are not “unpaid EU messengers”. One contributor explained:
“We were only told a couple of days ago that we have to do a bulk posting service to every house by next Wednesday. This is on top of six other door-to-doors we have to do this week. We shouldn’t have agreed to it.”
Another postal worker said: “There is simply not enough staff as it is. We are not getting extra money for delivering this.”
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “As the Universal Service Provider, Royal Mail has a strict policy of remaining neutral in all elections and referendums.
“Our employees are required to handle and deliver all kinds of lawfully posted mail to the same high standard.
“The leaflets will be delivered using Royal Mail’s door to door service and do not carry an additional payment.”
Senior Tory backbencher and long-time Eurosceptic, Bill Cash, will tomorrow table an amendment to the Budget calling for the spending limit on the ‘leave’ campaign to be lifted during the 10-week referendum campaign, reports The Telegraph. He expects his amendment to the Finance Bill to attract “substantial” cross-party support “because it is related to the unfairness of the breach of the undertaking that Government information would be impartial”.
An online petition calling on the government to stop the mail shot, which has been signed by 200,000 people, will likely be discussed by Members of Parliament this coming Tuesday.