THOUSANDS of postal votes have failed to be delivered by Royal Mail with ministers calling for an urgent probe.
It is claimed at least 90 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales are experiencing problems with getting paper ballots before Thursday’s election.
This morning a minister blasted the delivery disaster as “not acceptable”, adding Royal Mail needed to be more “competent”.
Some local councils have resorted to launching emergency drop-in centres for voters yet to get their postal vote packs.
Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, said: “We urge Royal Mail to do all they can to make sure that postal votes get to the right people at the right time, and time is completely of the essence now
“There’s a resourcing issue.
“They have recruited extra people and I welcome that but they’ve got to make sure they’ve got the right number of people to deliver the mail at busy times like this.
“It’s not acceptable it’s sat in sorting offices.
“It needs to be delivered to people’s houses. So they need to put more people on to do that.”
He added: “I don’t think there’s an issue here other than Royal Mail being competent.
“If people want to choose to vote by post, that’s perfectly fine.
“In my view, certainly from a logistical point of view, that should be something that’s available to anyone who wants to do that.”
The minister added he was made aware of issues in his own constituency, Thirsk and Malton, where he has a 25,000-vote majority.
This morning Maria Caulfield, a health minister, told Sky News this morning: “Kevin is taking this very seriously. He’s in direct contact with the Royal Mail.
“It doesn’t seem to be an issue in my constituency, but I know a number of colleagues where people haven’t received their postal votes and are worried about that.
“Kevin is investigating this urgently. I know there’s extra resources going into this to try and do a sweep of all the sorting offices and make sure they’re out there.”
Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho told LBC: “It’s absolutely critical that people can cast their vote.
“I have had a few people locally say they haven’t had their postal votes through.
“I know the Royal Mail has hired extra people and it’s absolutely crucial that they do because this really matters.”
And referencing a YouGov poll that revealed only a small number of voters changing their mind could sway the election, she added: “It’s only 130,000 people across the country that can change the outcome of those seats that they’re in.”
The SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Scots constituents had also reported trouble.
He told the BBC: “I’m massively concerned about that.
“Like almost every candidate across Scotland that I believe to be the case.
“I’ve had numerous emails from people who have not received their postal ballot, that’s simply not good enough.”
A Royal Mail source told The Telegraph: “We’ll be carrying out sweeps at our mail centres and delivery offices to ensure all postal votes in the network are identified and returned to the relevant local authority before the close of poll stations.
“We will also have additional people on the ground in our mail centres on Thursday evening, identifying and pulling postal votes for delivery to local authorities.”
The postal service is said to have already hired more than 1,000 extra staff to rush postal votes from sorting offices to polling stations before election day ends at 10pm.
