A Wirral MP who was asked to leave a Royal Mail delivery office on an annual Christmas goodwill visit said she was "shocked and insulted by the treatment" she had received.
Wallasey MP Dame Angela Eagle said she was abruptly asked to leave when carrying out an annual visit to the Liscard Royal Mail Delivery Office on Saturday December 9. The MP has visited postal workers for 31 years to deliver a bottle of whisky. Staff then usually raffle the bottle, with the proceeds often going to Claire House Children's Hospice.
However a postal worker at the office said this year Ms Eagle had been asked to leave because management "did not want her to see what a state the office is in", though Royal Mail bosses today told the ECHO it was due to no appointment having been made in advance. Ms Eagle said the issue of the office environment had been suggested to her since, adding: "It did seem inundated with parcels and under-staffed compared to previous years."
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Ms Eagle said she had notified Royal Mail about the visit via email and a similar trip to Moreton's delivery office had passed without incident. She also said she still did not know if staff had received her gift.
The postal worker, who spoke to the ECHO, said: "We are in the sorting office and her office is over the road. It's just a nice thing and we feel appreciated and not forgotten. It seems to me a fun thing at Christmas which at the moment, the Royal Mail seem to be taking out."
They added: "We think it's all because they did not want her to see what a state the office is in. It's in such a bad way. We felt that they didn't want her to see how bad things have got.
"She has been doing this for years. It's not like she was doing it for no reason, she brings it in for charity. It's left a bad feeling. It's a local charity and it's close to people's hearts and the way she was dealt with, it's poor to be honest."
Ms Eagle, in a statement to the ECHO said: "The annual visit is a Christmas tradition I have done since my election in 1992 without issue. In fact, I had already visited Moreton delivery office earlier that morning, and was able to chat to staff, drop off my gift and wish them all a very merry Christmas without disruption or issue.
"I look forward to the opportunity to show my gratitude to our hard-working posties at this busy time of year and they use the bottle of House of Commons Whiskey I give them in a raffle, raising money for the brilliant local charity Claire House Children's Hospice."
Ms Eagle added: "It has been suggested that my experience was due to management concern about me seeing the state of the office – and it did seem inundated with parcels and under-staffed compared to previous years. Whatever the basis for their actions, it is incredibly disappointing that management chose to stop me showing my thanks to the hard-working staff. Unfortunately, it seems all too illustrative of the way that the Royal Mail is being managed at the moment which is genuinely sad to see.
"Yet again, it is the workers who are busy keeping our postal services running and delivering Christmas across Wallasey that suffer due to heavy handed management wanting to cover up their own failures. I do hope that the whiskey was passed on for the raffle, but given I was escorted from the premises, I have no way of knowing this.
"Hopefully next year, management can find some Christmas cheer and have the office in a state they feel less need to hide."
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We very much welcome MPs to visit our delivery offices, however, appointments should be made in advance and this had not been done.”