Postal strikes will go ahead: union

Up to 120,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will stage two 24-hour walk-outs, crippling mail deliveries across the country.

The union warned of further strikes in the coming weeks and launched an extraordinary attack on Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, saying he was working "hand in hand with the Royal Mail" to "undermine the dispute".

General secretary Billy Hayes accused him of being the "minister without responsibility".

Dave Ward, the union's deputy general secretary, said the Royal Mail had no intention of resolving the dispute and seemed intent on "sidelining" the concerns of postal workers.

Mr Ward, who led the union's negotiators during marathon peace talks, said he believed progress had been made and that a deal could have been agreed which would have averted the strikes. But he said a letter sent on Wednesday to the union by Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson had "wiped out" progress which had been made during the talks and scuppered the chances of a deal.

Royal Mail insisted later it had agreed a set of words with the union during the talks over the past 24 hours which officials had agreed to take to the Executive meeting. It said: "Royal Mail finds it outrageous that the CWU leadership can accuse it of reneging on that agreement which we were expecting the union to rubber-stamp today and we remain happy to sign tonight - and we challenge the CWU to do the same. Sadly this seems to be yet another example of the CWU saying one thing and doing another."

In the Commons, Conservative leader David Cameron accused the Prime Minister of "an appalling display of weakness" by apparently dropping legislation to reform the Royal Mail.

In rowdy exchanges at PM's question time, Mr Cameron said it required "leadership, some backbone and some courage" to prevent union militancy - traits which, he insisted, Gordon Brown did not have to offer. And he urged the Prime Minister to "condemn these strikes and join me in sending a direct message to the trade union to call this strike off".

Mr Brown replied: "It's right for us in this House to urge negotiation and mediation. Our role must be to encourage the negotiations that are taking place, to urge those to go to Acas, when that becomes the right thing to do, and make sure we do everything in our power to get a negotiated settlement, to something that arises from the 2007 modernisation plan. It's in nobody's interest that this strike goes ahead."