diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 02ff2513e56f..e3c4aaae89aa 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ linux (5.3.7-2) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   * gencontrol: Generalise substitution of debhelper config template
   * Add maint scripts to meta-packages to convert doc directories to symlinks
     (Closes: #942861)
+  * debian/lib/python/debian_linux/utils.py: Use 'with' to manage file handles
 
  -- Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>  Wed, 23 Oct 2019 18:32:15 +0100
 
diff --git a/debian/lib/python/debian_linux/utils.py b/debian/lib/python/debian_linux/utils.py
index 34c15536df05..577ad319c55d 100644
--- a/debian/lib/python/debian_linux/utils.py
+++ b/debian/lib/python/debian_linux/utils.py
@@ -23,12 +23,12 @@ class Templates(object):
             for dir in self.dirs:
                 filename = "%s/%s%s" % (dir, name, suffix)
                 if os.path.exists(filename):
-                    f = codecs.open(filename, 'r', 'utf-8')
-                    if prefix == 'control':
-                        return read_control(f)
-                    if prefix == 'tests-control':
-                        return read_tests_control(f)
-                    return f.read()
+                    with codecs.open(filename, 'r', 'utf-8') as f:
+                        if prefix == 'control':
+                            return read_control(f)
+                        if prefix == 'tests-control':
+                            return read_tests_control(f)
+                        return f.read()
 
     def get(self, key, default=None):
         if key in self._cache: