IT would be a terrible thing if I had voted in Parliament to undermine the Post Office, as claimed by York's Lib Dem and Conservative Parliamentary candidates.

But I have done no such thing.

The Post Office is closing branches because it is losing customers. In 1996 three quarters of pensions and benefits were cashed at the Post Office. Now it is only a third.

In the last five years the Post Office has lost a third of its Girobank transactions and a quarter of National Savings and telephone bill payments.

My opponents claim the Postal Services Act "paved the way" for Post Office closures. In fact the act gives the Post Office the right to create new businesses while preserving its monopoly for delivering letters.

The Post Office now sells Lottery tickets, insurance and foreign currency, refunds prescription charges and distributes milk tokens.

The act strengthened the rights of Post Office users by giving Postwatch new powers - hence the consultation in York.

The Government introduced the Post Office card, which has already attracted 3.2 million users, to enable people to keep claiming pensions and benefits in cash at Post Offices if they wish. Altogether £2 billion has been invested in new business for the Post Office, and keeping branches open.

Do my opponents intend to raise taxes to increase the level of support? Are they offering new business to York Post Office branches - processing council payments and benefits, for instance? Let's have some constructive suggestions.

Some closures in York are inevitable. Even the postmasters of the branches affected say so. But I need more people to write to me to complain. The more people who protest the better the chances of keeping some branches open.

Hugh Bayley MP,

Constituency office,

Holgate Road,

York.

Updated: 11:06 Friday, September 10, 2004