A motion to call a halt to the current round of post office closures was debated within the House of Commons but was defeated by 20 votes.

Nineteen Labour MPs voted against the government's closure programme but Linlithgow and East Falkirk MP Michael Connarty was not one of them.

But Mr Connarty insisted he was determined to fight any closures in his constituency and he called on the Government to be flexible where it could be shown that a projected closure could seriously damage a
community.

And he admitted: "This is an issue which is bleeding away support for the Labour Party."

He said: "I told the Government I couldn't support it but there was no way that I could support either the Conservative motion, which is essentially to privatise the Post Office service, nor could I
support the Lib-Dems, so I abstained from the vote.

He added: "However, I remain commited to the idea of the Post Office as a public service and I will fight for every single post office in my
consitutuency if there are any proposals for closure."

But, Falkirk Council SNP group leader, David Alexander, accused Mr Connarty of double standards in not voting against post office closures while claiming to support local community groups campaigning against closure.

Mr Alexander said: "Mr Connarty is an embarrassment to his constituents who are fighting hard to retain their local post office services against the continued attacks of the UK Labour government."

Falkirk West constituency has lost eight post offices recently, seven as part of the Post Office closure programme and another which closed when the sub postmaster retired.

The part of Falkirk district which sits within the Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency, including much of the Braes, Grangemouth and Bo'ness, is bracing itself for announcements of closure within the next few months.

Linlithgow, which has now just a single post office is likely to be unaffected but there are fears that at least one of the three sub-offices in Bo'ness could face the axe.