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Royal Mail's regulatory framework "isn't working", business secretary John Hutton has said.
Speaking at Labour Party conference on Saturday, Hutton said it was impossible to build support for the future of the postal service by "constantly lowering levels of service".
Hutton had not been billed to speak at the Communication Workers' Union fringe event in Manchester, but asked at a late stage to join deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman on the platform.
"There's an emerging consensus that the regulatory framework isn't working," he said.
"That's something that the unions have been saying to us for long time."
Acknowledging that there were issues around the future of the Royal Mail, he said: "You can't build the consensus of support for the Royal Mail as a publically-owned business if the only way we can balance the books is by constantly lowering the level of service.
"And this is how it seems to the public by what the Royal Mail delivers."
Party policy on the subject had been agreed at Labour's national policy forum, he said, but he promised to work with the union to provide certainty for its members.
Responding to questions about the government's decision to shut 2,500 post offices, Hutton said he knew "full well how unpopular that closure programme was".
"There's one inescapable fact: Every week there are four million fewer people going into the sub post office network because there are other ways they can do that business, and most of it is online," he said.
Harman had earlier thanked the CWU for its support, telling the fringe meeting: "When things are difficult it's your friends you can really look to, turn to and count upon.
"And there have been countless really difficult situations over the last year when the CWU has been the bedrock of Labour campaigning."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd