Chuka Umunna MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, responding to Royal Mail results and Vince Cable’s appearance before the BIS Committee, said:

“Royal Mail’s profits doubled in the first half of this year before privatisation, demolishing the Government’s case for its fire sale of Royal Mail, which rest on a claim it couldn’t succeed in public hands and needed to be privatised for investment to take place. Out-of-touch Ministers, who will only stand up for a privileged few, have nationalised the debt of Royal Mail and privatised the profit.

“Vince Cable and David Cameron are in denial about the real concern that taxpayers have been left short changed to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds by their botched Royal Mail privatisation, at a time when many are struggling with a cost of living crisis of the Government’s making.

“Vince Cable says he will look at the share price in a matter of months or years, but the key issue is what price the Government could have secured when it floated the company on 11 October this year.”