Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The UK government has denied claims made by the former chair of the Post Office that he had been instructed to stall payments to sub-postmasters ahead of the general election, after critics hit out at ministers’ handling of redress for victims of the Horizon scandal.
Henry Staunton, who was ousted earlier this month, told the Sunday Times newspaper that when he was appointed two years ago he had been asked by a senior civil servant to delay payouts and new IT infrastructure for the sake of public finances.
“Early on, I was told by a fairly senior person to stall on spending on compensation and on the replacement of Horizon, and to limp, in quotation marks — I did a file note on it — limp into the election,” Staunton said. “It was not an anti-postmaster thing, it was just straight financials.”
The Department for Business and Trade said: “We utterly refute these allegations. The government has sped up compensation to victims, and consistently encouraged postmasters to come forward with their claims.”
More than 900 sub-postmasters were convicted in cases involving data from Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system following its introduction in 1999, including more than 700 brought by the Post Office itself.
Thousands more were affected after they were pursued for account shortfalls, while the government has to date paid out at least £138mn of the £1bn it has set aside for compensation.
Many of the victims are still awaiting compensation offers while others have complained that the amount they were awarded fell short of the damages incurred.
Jonathan Reynolds, Labour MP and shadow business secretary, said on Sunday the claims made by Staunton amounted to “incredibly serious allegations” and vowed to seek answers when parliament returned next week.
“Under no circumstances should compensation to victims be delayed and to do so for party political purposes would be a further insult to sub-postmasters,” Reynolds said.
Staunton also alleged that Post Office chief executive Nick Read had written to ministers attempting to pre-empt plans to exonerate victims en masse by noting that a review found more than 300 cases were likely to be opposed on appeal. The Post Office denied these claims.
Kemi Badenoch, business secretary, on Sunday wrote on social media platform X that Staunton had been dismissed “due to very serious allegations” including blocking an investigation into his own conduct.
Hudgell Solicitors, a firm representing about 400 former sub-postmasters, posted on X that it was working to prevent victims being “short-changed” after some reported receiving offers worth tens of thousands of pounds less than they repaid to the Post Office for shortfalls.
Read the full article here
