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A union representing Post Office staff has lashed out at proposals that could result in 115 branch closures and significantly more than 1,000 workers losing their jobs, by describing them as “immoral”.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) signalled a fight ahead as the Post Office confirmed details of its transformation plan – first revealed by Sky News on Tuesday – that aims to boost postmaster pay by £250m over five years.

The embattled firm’s initial statement failed to mention threats to employment at its head office and within 115 larger “crown” branches.

While its wider proposals aim to place postmasters at the heart of the government-owned business in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal, it was later confirmed that 1,000 roles at the crown sites were at risk.

These large branches are owned by the Post Office.

Revealed: The full list of 115 Post Offices at risk of closure

A franchise model was being considered as an alternative.

The potential closure of these sites is another option. While such a move would cut costs, it would also spread business to nearby branches run by sub-postmasters.

A cost-cutting drive would also see hundreds of head office roles go.

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Redress for Post Office victims

But the CWU boss, Dave Ward suggested the business, and the government, would have a fight on its hands, describing the decision as “tone deaf as it is immoral” in the wake of the IT scandal that saw hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly jailed and struggle in their fight to secure redress and compensation.

“CWU members are victims of the Horizon scandal – and for them to now fear for their jobs ahead of Christmas is yet another cruel attack”, he said.

“While we are in the middle of a government review of the Post Office’s future, the employer has embarked on its own strategic review.

“It seems the Post Office has learned no lessons from its chaotic and uncoordinated mistakes of the past.

“We call on the Post Office to immediately halt these planned closures and the attached consultations – which, historically, have been nothing but playing lip service – and engage with the CWU on protecting jobs and services.

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Former Post Office boss apologises to sub-postmasters

“We also call on the government to intervene over this shambolic decision.”

The five-year transformation plan, which includes an effort to double revenues for postmasters over five years, was initiated in May by the Post Office’s new chairman Nigel Railton who ordered a strategic review.

He told staff on Wednesday that postmasters could expect up to £120m in additional remuneration by the end of the first year of the plan, representing a 30% increase in revenue share – tackling long-held complaints about poor rewards for postmasters’ work.

Promises of less red tape and a better voice in decision-making were also included.

Mr Railton succeeded Henry Staunton – sacked by-then business secretary Kemi Badenoch in January – and was under immediate pressure to set a new path for the scandal-hit business that served postmasters rather than itself.

Mr Railton said: “The Post Office has a 360-year history of public service and today we want to secure that service for the future by learning from past mistakes and moving forward for the benefit of all postmasters. We can, and will, restore pride in working for a business with a legacy of service, rather than one of scandal.

“The value postmasters deliver in their communities must be reflected in their pockets, and this Transformation Plan provides a route to adding more than £250m annually to total postmaster remuneration by 2030, subject to government funding.

“It begins a new phase of partnership during which we will strengthen the postmaster voice in the day-to-day running and operations of the business, so they are represented from the frontline to the boardroom.”

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Ministers to mutualise Post Office

Further changes being considered by ministers include potentially handing ownership of the Post Office to sub-postmasters, as revealed by Sky News last month.

Such an employee-owned model, known as a mutual, would be comparable in the private sector to that of the John Lewis Partnership – the owner of Waitrose supermarkets and the eponymous department store chain.

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Chris Head, once the youngest sub-postmaster in the UK but who lost everything when he was wrongly accused of theft as part of the Horizon scandal, welcomed the prospect of a widespread shake-up.

He said of the plan to deliver more revenue: “We must ensure that a large proportion of that ends up with postmasters to bolster their poor remuneration levels whilst at the same time innovating for the future to develop more products and services for customers in order to drive footfall into branches.

“There must be a commitment from government to help deliver this and the end goal being mutualisation for a successful future.”

Mr Head added that the prospect of head office job cuts in the months ahead was good news, saying: “Post Office has always been a top heavy organisation and that needs to change going forward to make it more efficient.”

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Donald Trump says he will postpone 50% tariffs on EU until July

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Donald Trump says he will postpone 50% tariffs on EU until July

Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.

It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.

The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.

But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.

Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.

The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.

Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.

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“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.

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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”

On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.

Read more from Sky News:
Gail’s backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron
AA owners line up banks to steer path towards £4.5bn exit

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12 May: US and China reach agreement on tariffs

Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.

Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.

“We stand ready to defend our interests.”

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Gail’s backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron

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Gail's backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron

A backer of Gail’s bakeries is in advanced talks to acquire Flat Iron, one of Britain’s fastest-growing steak restaurant chains.

Sky News has learnt that McWin Capital Partners, which specialises in investments across the “food ecosystem”, has teamed up with TriSpan, another private equity investor, to buy a large stake in Flat Iron.

Restaurant industry sources said McWin would probably take the largest economic interest in Flat Iron if the deal completes.

They added that the two buyers were in exclusive discussions, with a deal possible in approximately a month’s time.

The valuation attached to Flat Iron was unclear on Sunday.

Flat Iron launched in 2012 in London’s Shoreditch and now has roughly 20 sites open.

The chain is solidly profitable, with its latest accounts showing underlying profits of £5.7m in the year to the end of August.

It already has private equity backing in the form of Piper, a leading investor in consumer brands, which injected £10m into the business in 2017.

Flat Iron was founded by Charlie Carroll, who retains an interest in it, but the company is now run by former Byron restaurant boss Tom Byng.

Houlihan Lokey, the investment bank, has been advising Flat Iron on the process.

McWin has reportedly been in talks to take full control of Gail’s while TriSpan’s portfolio has included restaurant operators such as the Vietnamese chain Pho and Rosa’s, a Thai food chain.

A spokesman for McWin declined to comment.

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AA owners line up banks to steer path towards £4.5bn exit

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AA owners line up banks to steer path towards £4.5bn exit

The owners of the AA, Britain’s biggest breakdown recovery service, are lining up bankers to steer a path towards a sale or stock market listing next year which could value the company at well over £4bn.

Sky News has learnt that JP Morgan and Rothschild are in pole position to be appointed to conduct a review of the AA’s strategic options following a recovery in its financial and operating performance.

The AA, which has more than 16 million customers, including 3.3 million individual members, is jointly owned by three private equity firms: Towerbrook Capital Partners, Warburg Pincus and Stonepeak.

Insiders said this weekend that any form of corporate transaction involving the AA was not imminent or likely to take place for at least 12 months.

They added that there was no fixed timetable and that a deal might not take place until after 2026.

Nevertheless, the impending appointment of advisers underlines the renewed confidence its shareholders now have in its prospects, with the business having recorded four consecutive years of customer, revenue and earnings growth.

A strategic review of the AA’s options is likely to encompass an outright sale, listing on the public markets or the disposal of a further minority stake.

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Stonepeak invested £450m into the company in a combination of common and preferred equity, in a transaction which completed in July last year.

That deal was undertaken at an enterprise valuation – comprising the AA’s equity and debt – of approximately £4bn, the shareholders said at the time.

Given the company’s growth and the valuation at which Stonepeak invested, any future transaction would be unlikely to take place with a price of less than £4.5bn, according to bankers.

The AA, which has a large insurance division as well as its roadside recovery operations, remains weighed down by a substantial – albeit declining – debt burden.

Its most recent set of financial results disclosed that it had £1.9bn of net debt, which it is gradually paying down as profitability improves.

AA owners over the years

The company has been through a succession of owners during the last 25 years.

In 1999, it was bought by Centrica, the owner of British Gas, for £1.1bn.

It was then sold five years later to CVC Capital Partners and Permira, two buyout firms, for £1.75bn, and sat under the corporate umbrella Acromas alongside Saga for a decade.

The AA listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2014, but its shares endured a miserable run, being taken private nearly seven years later at little more than 15% of its value on flotation.

Under the ownership of Towerbrook and Warburg Pincus, the company embarked on a long-term transformation plan, recruiting a new leadership team in the form of chairman Rick Haythornthwaite – who also chairs NatWest Group – and chief executive Jakob Pfaudler.

For many years, the AA styled itself as “Britain’s fourth emergency service”, competing with fierce rival the RAC for market share in the breakdown recovery sector.

Founded in 1905 by a quartet of driving enthusiasts, the AA passed 100,000 members in 1934, before reaching the one million mark in 1950.

Last year, it attended 3.5 million breakdowns on Britain’s roads, with 2,700 patrols wearing its uniform.

The company also operates the largest driving school business in the UK under the AA and BSM brands.

In the past, it has explored a sale of its insurance arm, which also has millions of customers, at various points but is not actively doing so now.

By recruiting a third major shareholder last, the AA mirrored a deal struck in 2021 by the RAC.

The RAC’s then owners – CVC Capital Partners and the Singaporean state fund GIC – brought the technology-focused private equity firm, Silver Lake, in as another major investor.

A spokesman for the AA declined to comment on Saturday.

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