A former Post Office boss has unearthed a memo which he says backs up claims he was told to delay compensation payments to victims of the Horizon scandal in order to help the Conservative Party. The note claims he was ordered not to “rip off the band aid” in terms of Post Office finances so the government could go into the next election with the lowest possible financial liability.
The Horizon scandal has been dubbed the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history after a television docudrama told the story of the almost 900 Post Office branch managers (‘sub-postmasters’) who were wrongly convicted of false accounting, theft, and fraud. Attention has focussed since on how the finances of the Post Office, which is fully owned by the government, will both compensate these victims and replace the Horizon IT financial software, which produced flawed information used as the basis of convictions.
Politicians were quick to jump on the scandal after the series aired in January, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in particular promising “swifter” compensation. But Henry Staunton, who was sacked as Post Office chairman last month after holding the position since December 2022, claimed on Sunday that he was told to stall payments so the government could “limp into the election” with a better financial outlook.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch described this story, which featured in the latest issue of The Sunday Times, as false. She said Staunton was removed from his post due to “serious concerns about his behaviour as chair,” leading to an investigation into bullying. She suggested he was simply seeking revenge for his sacking.
But the former boss has since unearthed a memo he wrote and emailed to himself in January 2023 following a meeting with civil servant Sarah Munby, then permanent secretary at the Department for Business.
In the document, shared with The Times, Staunton claims he was told that “politicians do not necessarily like to confront reality” and that “now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues.” The paper writes:
The discovery of the January 5 memo now raises serious questions over the accuracy of Badenoch’s denial and her decision to brand Staunton a liar.
In his memo, Staunton also reported Munby as saying “that in the run-up to the election there was no appetite to ‘rip off the band aid.’ ‘Now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues.’ We needed a plan to ‘hobble’ up to the election.” The note does not make any explicit reference to compensation payments, however.
Furthermore, he claims he was never made aware of any investigation into bullying.
Munby is understood to have denied the accusations, and the government has also described them as “incorrect.” Yet Sunak appeared uninterested in saying anything on the issue in Wednesday’s session of Prime Minister’s Questions beyond pointing to Badenoch’s rebuttal on Monday. He in fact refused to repeat the business secretary’s claim that Staunton was “lying.”
Opposition politicians are now calling for an investigation into whether Badenoch’s claims misled the House of Commons—a sackable act.
