Royal Mail shareholders paid over £800m in past four years while services are scaled back

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Royal Mail shareholders have been paid over £800m in the past four years while the company scaled back the number of postal workers, delivery offices and planned cuts to pension schemes for employees. The Labour leader added: “Labour will end this rip off, bring Royal Mail back into public ownership and run it in the interests of the many, not the few.” Labour MP Helen Hayes has previously claimed that between the privatisation of Royal Mail in October 2013 and May 2017, 142 delivery offices have been closed by the company – around 10 per cent of the total. “This money should have been used to modernise Royal Mail giving the public a first-class service alongside protecting post workers’ terms and conditions. A Royal Mail spokesperson described the dividends as a “good thing, not a bad thing”, adding: “Our dividend payments have benefited the many Royal Mail people and private investors who own the company.