Post Office scandal: PM “strongly supports” withdrawing CBE from ex-Post Office boss

we are on it rishy sunak declared today as he sought to reassure the hundreds of sub poost Masters who were wrongly convicted of defrauding the post office and the Horizon Scandal that he would speed up the process of quashing their convictions and making sure they get full compensation this evening a minister is in the Commons to update MPS on the government's plans to deal with the miscarriage of Justice the post office has apologized to all those affected our political editor Gary Gibbon reports I got my life part over two and a half years since the appeal court quashed their convictions the sub postmaster saga continues 28 people how much I know daylight robbery that's the post office for you itv's dramatization of their plight has dragged this up every Leader's political agenda so first thing to say is this is an absolutely appalling miscarriage of Justice right many of you in this room would have watched the drama and congratulations to ITV uh for doing a superb job people should look know that we are on it and we want to make this right the money's been set aside now what we are now looking at is how can we speed all of that up right hey I'm richy how are you very well how are you guys you're right Rishi sunak was on a campaign visit to Lancashire ministers have rushed forward meetings to consider blanking of all sub postm convictions I believe the Prime Minister should be should be doing more did you take your tablet today yeah Vach Patel's father vipin was charged with stealing 75,000 from the post office and convicted of fraud in 2011 his health has really gone down um since the wrongful prosecution it it affected the business footfall uh reputation damaged didn't tatters um 70 80% of the family were horrible to my father Richie sunak said money to compensate those wrongfully convicted like vipin Patel has been set aside my dad was one of the first ones to be crashed on the 11th of December 2020 at the court of appeal 3 3 years have gone by and my father has not received an interim payment statement from the minister later on about the post office scal for those still awaiting their convictions being overturned ministers are looking into passing an act of Parliament that would quash all convictions brought against sub postmasters even though appeals are usually looked at on an individual basis I do believe that actually the Judiciary are as embarrassed about this and as angry about this as everyone else because after all people were convicted in courts and they were all Hoodwinked I remember Dave and I'm the postal affairs minister in the department for business Innovation and skills one of those falsely accused of theft said s ed Davey as a former Minister for the post office in the coalition government should consider resigning I wish I'd known then what we all know now the post office was lying on an industrial scale to me and other ministers and when I met uh Adam bate and listen to his concerns I put those concerns to the officials in my department to the post office to National Federation of postmasters and it's clear they all were lying to me I'm not prepared on behalf of the post office I've got my answer so you no you haven't got your answer you haven't heard a yes or no I simply saying that at the moment I'm not able to answer your questions the Prime Minister through his spokesman strongly hinted he agreed with those calling for the former boss of the post office Paula venel to be stripped of her CBE if you want to see my accounts number 10 also suggested that Fujitsu Who provided the faulty accounting software at the heart of the Scandal should pay for some of the compensation I think there's a sense that the raising of the CBE issue by number 10 is a little bit of chaff that's been thrown in the air because other bigger solutions to what's gone on here are not ready and we've just been listening to the uh while you were listening to that report the minister for the Post Office the current one has been telling the House of Commons that he to come forward with Solutions very shortly we know that the government is looking at blanket exonerations uh for people who've been uh convicted sub postmasters and also looking how to speed up payments in both these cases they're looking at the possibility of bulk exonerations way outside the normal tradition of uh legal Affairs in this country and maybe even uh bulk blanket uh compensation figures again that doesn't fit comfortably with uh tradition in this country some people will have different needs uh there could be members of the family who are affected of a sub postmaster and other things like that but those are the sort of things that are being looked at to try to speed up this in entire process I should also say the post office spokesman uh has previously said it shares the aim of the public inquiry into all of this to get to the truth of what went wrong uh and establish accountability so what have we learned today about rushi sunak election strategy then well yes that's what wanted us all to be talking about he didn't go to Lancashire uh uh just to for for the travel experience he went there to try and lay down some parameters of how he wants to shape this general election and rather interestingly they're different again uh from some that he's laid down before you'll remember at the Party Conference in October he was talking about a sort of revolution in public life ripping up the way things have been done for the last 30 years there was a telling phrase in what he was talking about today which suggests a change of strategy saying that what he wants to bring people live is peace of mind well that's hardly a revolution but it's the framing that he wants to put on it and at the moment all the noise from this issue as well as others but today the postmasters uh Scandal obliterated Rishi sunak other message Gary Gibbon well the man who helped make all this possible through his tireless campaign for justice was the former sub postmaster Alan Bates he fought for two decades to expose The Horizon Scandal and inspired the icv drama so when I spoke to him earlier I asked what he has made of this Sudden Rush by politicians to try and find a solution well it's great that we're actually starting to get real movement down in Westminster I think it's I mean we've had a lot of Support over the years from politicians but now it seems to have um brought everyone together and and let's hope they can actually sort this out now are you surprised that it took a drama on TV to Reg Galvanize the debate I'm pleased I'm pleased that has actually achieved something in there I mean it's a good drama it's great I mean the actors were great in it and they certainly got over the the human suffering and misery inflicted on them by this major corporation um so yeah I'm very pleased with it so if you sat down with richy sunak and could write out your prescription what would it be what are the things they could do right now first thing and the priority is to get money that's owed to the the actual victims the original 500 people they've got to get that sorted it's been going on for far too long we've lost 50 or 60 of them along the way 70 in fact thinking right and I mean it's it's it's diabolical then they need to look at who's responsible in all this and hold them to account at the same time they've got to try and sort something out with all of the convictions those that haven't come forward yet there there's a short list of jobs that they've got to get on with and they've got to get on with them now there's a big debate around getting the CBE back off Paula vanel the former CEO of the post office is that important to you well I mean I was offered an obbe and I refused it on the grounds that she had a CBE I mean she had a CBE for services to post office someone has to explain to me what service has she done the post office really and who thought it was a good idea to give her a CBE and do you think there should be um prosecutions now of the people who are behind this I mean the prosecutions whether or not that actually takes cases down to others to decide but I know they are starting to look at it and it certainly needs to happen in in the cases of the real guilty and personally where does this leave you I mean there's a lot of anger out there that people the feeling just watching this as viewers how much has it sort of dragged up for you I've been living with it for over 20 years and this just seems another day mind you it's another day where the house full of film Crews talking to you now I can see what a good job Toby Jones has done um of portraying you in that uh you're um you're a very even temperament but uh but you know how would you describe your anger levels today around this whole Scandal well actually I think they're quite good really apart from when I'm doing interviews but I mean I think it's great that we're managing to get the message over and enforce what's been going on for all these years and and and the media is very welcome and it's great to have so much interest in it can I also ask you about some of the the politicians who are being blamed there's a a lot of focus on Ed Davey who's just one of the many ministers who was responsible for this um do you hold him personally responsible any more than the others I I I can't say that because I I think most of the ministers have been given a real Bon steer by their by their official officials and by post office I think post office have been briefing against our campaign for many years right across all the political parties so I mean just holding him purely responsible I I think a little bit much and I just wonder you know there'll be there'll be a people with totally different causes watching your story um what advice would you give people who are mounting campaigns there somebody who mounted a very dogged long running campaign that has finally now looks like it might come to fruition well the first thing I'd advise is people to find the support of their their local MP I mean that's been enormous enormously helpful for us and it's helped to Center the campaign from around the country but I I mean it is hard work don't expect quick results and you just have to keep working at it slow but surely and you'll hopefully you'll get there Alan Bas thank you very much indeed okay you're welcome thanks

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 81,251

Keywords: Channel 4 News, Sunak, post office, general election, campaign, election, uk politics, post office scandal, sub postmaster, horizon, justice, sir ed davey, ed davey, paula vennels, vennels, keir starmer, labour, alan bates, bates, mr bates vs the post office, lib dems, liberal democrats, channel 4 news, c4 news

Id: 2HBSt5jd7tU

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024