Kemi Badenoch grilled after shocking post office scandal allegation

we now come to the statement on the post office secretary of state with your permission Mr Speaker I wish to make a statement on post office governance and Horizon compensation schemes Mr Speaker several serious allegations were made against the government my department and its officials by Henry ston the former chair of the post office over the weekend these allegations are completely false and I would like to make a statement to the house so that honorable members and the Bri public know the truth about what exactly what has happened I would like to address three specific claims that Mr ston made in his Sunday Times interview claims which are patently untrue first Mr ston alleges that I refuse to apologize to him after he learned of his dismissal from Sky News that was not the case in the call he referenced I made it abundantly clear that I disapproved of the media breaking any aspect of this story and out of respect for Henry st's reputation I went to Great pains to make my concerns about his conduct private in fact in my interviews with the Press I repeatedly said that I refused to carry out HR in public that is why it is so disappointing that he's chosen to spread a series of falsehoods provide madeup anecdotes to journalists and leak discussions held in confidence all of this merely confirms in my mind that I made the correct decision in dismissing him second Mr ston claimed I told him that someone's got to take rap for the Horizon Scandal and that was the reason for his dismissal that was not the reason at all I dismissed him because there were serious concerns about his behavior as chair including those raised from other directors on the board my department found significant governance issues for example with the recruitment of a new senior independent director to the post office board a public appointment process was underway but Mr ston apparently wanted to bypass it appointing someone from within the existing board without due process he failed to properly consult the post office board on the proposal he failed to hold the required nominations committee most importantly he failed to consult the government as a shareholder which the company was required to do I know that honorable members will agree with me that such a Cavalier approach to governance was the last thing we needed in the post office given its historic failings I should also inform the house that while he was in post a formal investigation was launched into allegations made regarding Mr st's conduct this included serious matters such as bullying concerns were brought to my Department's attention about Mr st's willingness to cooperate with that investigation so it is right that the British public know the facts behind this case and what was said in the phone call where I dismissed Mr ston officials from my department were on the line it was minuted and their readout was sent after it took place today I am depositing a copy of that readout out in both libraries of the house so the honorable members and the public can see the truth personal information relating to other post office employees in those minutes have been redacted it is for all of these reasons that an interim chair will be appointed shortly and I will of course update the house when we have further details finally Mr Speaker Mr ston claimed that when he was first appointed as chair of the post office he was told by a senior civil servant to stall on paying compensation there is no evidence whatsoever that this is true in fact on becoming post office chair Mr ston received a letter from the bay permanent secretary Sarah mum on the 9th of December 2022 it welcomed him to his role making it crystal clear that successfully reaching settlements with victims of the post office Scandal should be one of his highest priorities that letter is in the public domain the words are there in black and white and copies of the correspondents will be placed in the libraries of both houses the reality is that my department has done everything it can to speed up compensation payments for victims we've already made payments totaling £160 million across all three compensation schemes that includes our announcement last Autumn of the optional £600,000 fixed sum award for those who' been wrong wrongfully convicted it's the strongest reputation Mr Speaker of those in this house who would claim that we only acted after the ITV drama Mr Vates versus the post office British people should know that a dedicated team of ministers and civil servants have been working around the clock for many months to hasten the pursuit of justice and bring Swift Fair address to all those affected to that end I am pleased that all 2,417 postmasters who claimed through the original Horizon shortfall scheme have now had offers of compensation and the post office is dealing promptly with late applications in cases where the initial offer has not been accepted my department has also established a horizon compensation unit to ensure that money gets to the right people without a moment's delay and we announced this Autumn an additional 50 million to the post office specifically to help them meet the cost of participating in the post office Horizon inquiry and deliver compensation to postmasters in all we've committed around1 billion to ensure wronged postmasters can be fully and fairly compensated and we are taking unprecedented steps with the forthcoming legislation to quash convictions of postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal in short Mr Speaker we are putting our money where our mouth is and our shoulders to the wheel in ensuring that Justice is done it is not fair on the victims of this Scandal which has already ruined so many lives and livelihoods to claim as Mr Thon has done that this is being dragged out a second longer than it ought to be for Henry Thon to suggest otherwise for whatever personal motives is a disgrace and it risks damaging confidence in the compensation schemes which ministers and civil servants are working so hard to deliver I would hope that most people reading the interview in yesterday Sun Sunday Times would see it for what it was a blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal Mr Speaker I must say that I regret the way in which these events have unfolded I did everything we did everything we could to manage this dismissal in a dignified way for Mr ston and others however I will not hesitate to defend myself and more importantly my officials who cannot respond directly to these baseless attacks right now the post office's number one priority must be delivering compensation to postmasters who have not already been compensated those that fell victim to a 40it system they implemented and which they turned a blind eye to when Brave whistleblowers like Alan Bates sounded the alarm we said that the government would leave no stone unturned in uncovering the truth behind the Horizon scandal in pursuing Justice for the victims and their families we are delivering on that promise while looking for any further possible steps we can take so full and final settlement St uh Claims can be reached as quickly as possible it is right that we reflect too on the cultural practices at the post office which allowed the Horizon Scandal to happen in the first place a culture which let those in the highest ranks of the organization arbitrarily dismiss the very real concerns of the sub postmasters who are the lifeblood of their business and pillars of the local community while the post office may have failed to stand by its postmasters in the past we are ensuring that they do everything they can to Champion them today fostering an environment that respects their employees and respects their customers that is how we will rebuild trust and ensure that the British cup public can have confidence in our post office now and in the future I commend this statement to the house under Secretary of State Jonathan Reynolds thank you Mr Speaker I firmly agree that the revelations in the Sunday Times at the weekend could not be more serious in particular the claim that the post office was instructed to deliberately go slow on compensation payments to sub postmasters in order to push the financial liability into the next Parliament if true would be a further outrageous insult to a scandal that has already rocked faith in the fairness of the British state it cannot be allowed to stand if it is the case and if it is not it must be shown to be false in no uncertain terms yet we do now have two completely contrasting accounts one from the former chair of the post office and one from the Secretary of State and only one of these accounts can be the truth and I hope we're all in agreement that Parliament is the correct place for these matters to be raised and clarified because what we need now is transparency and scrutiny so can I ask the secretary of state will she categorically state that the post office was at no point all to delay compensation payments by either an official or a minister from any government department and at no point was it alluded to that a delay would be of benefit to the treasury will there now be a cabinet office investigation to ensure that no such instruction or inference was given at any point point crucially is the 1 billion pounds figure of compensation which the Secretary State quite helpfully just repeated already allocated and sat in the Department of Business and trades accounts ready to be paid if it is not will we see compensation payments itemized specifically in the upcoming budget the secretary of state will also understand that following the story The Weekend victims of other scandals especially contaminated blood now feel that they need to ask the question as to whether they have been the victims of deliberate inaction can the government provide assurances that no such obstruction has been placed on any payments of that kind and if so what is the delay with some of these cases and in the full interest of transparency and to fully ascertain the veracity of any allegations for sub postmasters and the general public will she publish all relevant correspondents in minutes of meetings between the department the treasury UK gii and the post office during this time and finally when can we expect the legislation on exonerations that was promised by the Prime Minister I cannot stress enough how the last thing that was needed in this Scandal was any further allegations of cover-ups or obfuscation at the very top of government people's faith in government already damaged from scandals like hillsbor and Bloody Sunday and Windrush is hanging by a thread and this miscarriage of justice has shown the devastation that can occur when institutions are allowed to operate without oversight or are shrouded by secrecy so we should all agree that that secrecy must end and the full sunlight of public scrutiny brought to bear and if everything the secretary of state has told us today is correct surely there will be no objection to that happening in F uh thank you Mr Speaker and I would like to very much uh welcome the tone that the shadow franch Ben spokesman has taken on this I know that there are often uh Tendencies for political Point scoring but I think we both agree that this is very much about the postmasters and that is why I made sure that I was at this dispatch box so the people would know the truth that is what builds um that is what builds trust so he asked if I would categorically state that no uh instruction was given to uh delay to delay payments yes I can we have no evidence whatsoever uh that any official said this and actually if there if if some such a thing was said it is for Mr ston himself to bring the evidence it's very hard to refuse a negative people just making wild baseless accusations and then demanding proof that they didn't happen um are Mischief making in uh in my view so as far as I have seen and all the evidence points to the fact that no one made this claim but also I think it's important to look at whether it would even make sense to do so there would be no benefit whatsoever of us delaying compensation this does not have any significant impact on revenues whatsoever it would be a mad thing to even suggest and the compensation scheme uh which uh Mr stonton oversaw has actually been completed my understanding is the 100% of payments have been made so clearly no instruction was given and he mentions the infected blood inquiry I think that this is a good example of how people lose faith in the system because of misinformation that is put out there and that is why I'm here to uh correct the record he asked about the billion pounds uh allocation we give monthly reports that show exactly what payments are being made and um he also asked about whether we would be publishing correspondence uh no we will not be publishing in full all correspondence between departments and uh UK gii and the post office that is because we set up the statutory inquiry that will examine those important issues relating to the Horizon Scandal and examine current governance arrangements so we are fully cooperating with the inquiry but the inquiry is was set up specifically to look at that by Parliament um and in addition to the readout of the true content of my telephone call with Mr ston we will uh consider publishing correspondence between departments and Mrs Thon in accordance with Freedom of Information rules so that uh people will know exactly what happened uh contrary to the account that he has given he asked about legislation that is something we're actively working on and I am expecting uh that we will be able to do this immin

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Keywords: Politics, UK politics, British politics, Parliament, Government, Westminster, news, breaking news, conversation, politics news, politicsjoe, joe songs, boris johnson song, boris johnson speech, keir starmer song, keir starmer speech, new media, novara, rishi sunak, labour party, conservative, tory party, conservatism, brexit

Id: gcNs0J2nQJM

Length: 13min 36sec (816 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2024