'Speak English' postie forced from his job

The postmaster who banned customers unable to speak English from his post office has been forced out of his job.

Sri Lankan-born Deva Kumarasiri introduced the ban at his Sneinton Boulevard post office in inner-city Nottingham last week, saying that anyone who moves to a new country should learn to speak its language and embrace its culture.

But on Saturday he turned up for work to be told he was being transferred to a different post office branch in Nottingham. Managers said they had no choice but to move Kumarasiri, because the post office service "was for everybody".

They admitted they were concerned about the impact on trade after the postmaster's comments, following complaints about the ban from some local residents and reports that Polish migrants had been boycotting the branch.

"The owner of the shop in Sneinton Boulevard is very, very angry, and the local Muslims began a petition to get rid of me. Because of that my head office has transferred me to another post office," said Kumarasiri.

He insisted he would continue the ban at his new post office branch in Netherfield, a predominantly white area of Nottingham.

"But I'm not backing down. It's only a few people who have forced me out. It's the owner of the shop and the Muslim community. It's not the people out there. They support me.

"I am at this different site for the time being and I hope I can then come back. I will fight to get back there because I want to go back to my customers," he added.

"The policy is the same at my new post office. It is for me to give a proper service to my customers. I need to know what service people will require. But it is completely different here, so it will not be a problem. It is a very different area."

Kumarasiri, who says he has been inundated with cards and messages of support from across the UK, added: "I don't expect everyone to agree with me.

"It was inevitable that those who don't want to be fully integrated into this country would do something like this. For me it proves that there are elements out there who have no intention of ever being integrated."

Kumarasiri has also been thrown out of the Liberal Democrat party, which he represented as a councillor for Gedling borough until Friday.

Tony Gillam, the Gedling Liberal Democrat leader, said Kumarasiri's opinions meant he could no longer be a member of the party.

"Deva is not a Liberal Democrat councillor. The views expressed go well beyond what we can accommodate," he said, adding that it had not been necessary to expel Kumarasiri from the party as he had not paid any subscriptions for 18 months.

Kumarasiri's policy had also been criticised by the Racial Equality Council and by the Labour MP for Nottingham East, John Heppell.

"This was a little bit strange. What do you do with tourists?" asked Heppell. "If I was abroad and if someone refused to sell me a stamp because my French or German was not good enough, I think I would have every right to be offended. And I suspect that people in this country would be offended by what this man was doing." - The Observe.