Ken Clarke says postal workers thinking of striking are behaving almost as if they had a "death wish"

That is the hard-hitting message which shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke is sending through the pages of the first edition of the FT. It comes as 120,000 Royal Mail staff across the entire country begin voting on whether to go on a national strike over pay, jobs and services.

The paper quotes Mr Clarke as saying:

“We are returning to a world in which totally irresponsible strikes are being threatened in the public services. The state of Royal Mail is now so serious that talk of a strike for vague objectives is almost like a death wish.

“This is where we have got to after 12 years of the government doing nothing about the problems of Royal Mail and they appear to have no policy for its future which they are capable of pursuing at the moment.”

Jonathan Isaby