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Royal Mail was yesterday accused of fleecing taxpayers as it announced multimillion-pound profits.
In the service’s first set of results since its controversial £3.3 billion stock market flotation in October 2013, the company said that operating profits after transformation costs were £430 million in the year to March 30, against £403m a year earlier.
The figures sparked a fresh row over whether Business Secretary Vince Cable sold the shares too cheaply last year, with unions saying it was now clear that taxpayers had been “fleeced.”
Brian Scott of Unite, which represents 7,000 Royal Mail managers, said: “The taxpayer has been fleeced. Instead of these profits flowing into the Treasury’s coffers to pay for schools and nurses it’s flowing into the pockets of shareholders, some of whom enjoyed ‘mates rates’ when Royal Mail was sold off on the cheap.
“Unite members in Royal Mail are paying the price with job losses and the uncertainty is set continue with a massive £106m set aside to cover ‘transformational costs’.”