BOTH of Swindon's MPs voted against a last-ditch effort to postpone the closing of four of the town's post offices.

Anne Snelgrove, the MP for South Swindon, and Michael Wills, the MP for North Swindon, voted against a Tory motion to delay closure of the post offices while other options were explored.

Post offices, in Lawn, Rodbourne, Lydiard Millicent and Eastcott are to be closed under present post office plans to shut thousands of facilities up and down the country.

The two Swindon politicians say they voted against Tory plans to delay closures because the scheme was merely political game playing.

The Conservative motion, which was debated and voted on last Wednesday, saw 20 Labour MPs rebel against the Government and vote for the motion - but it was downed by a count of 288 to 268.

Mr Wills said: "What matters is to save services for the vulnerable locally.

"The Tory motion wouldn't have kept a single extra post office open. It was political game playing.

"They agreed post offices would close, as the network is losing £200m a year.

"Indeed, they refused to match Government investment of £1.7bn so the Tory approach could see a further 7,500 post offices closing.

"I've surveyed Cheney Manor residents to see what they want and got 100 responses so far.

"I'm working with the Post Office and I hope the council will now reply to my invitation to join us to see what can be done.

"This is a test for Swindon Tories - can they put aside party politics and work with me for residents?"

Anne Snelgrove spoke during the Commons debate on the closures and, after a Government minister told her the Tories' plans would not save a single post office, she voted against the motion.

"This was just cynical political point scoring," she said. "The Tories weren't going to put any more money into keeping post offices open in Swindon or anywhere.

"I think that the fight to keep the post offices open should be a cross-party one."

Robert Buckland, who will fight the South Swindon seat for the Conservatives at the next General Election said: "We are staggered both Labour MPs have sought to front Save Our Post Office campaigns in Swindon, yet voted to carry on with the Government's closure programme."