Petition to strip ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells of CBE virtually at 1 million

Almost a million folks have signed a petition demanding ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells be stripped of her CBE.

The determine has rapidly risen after ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office shone a light-weight on the IT scandal that led to lots of of employees’ lives being ruined and a few wrongfully convicted.

Rishi Sunak confirmed the Government is exonerating all postmasters concerned within the Horizon scandal as he was confronted by one of many victims at present. The PM was challenged on how compensation has been paid at a “snail’s pace” as he appeared on the BBC ’s Laura Kuenssberg programme. Susan Knight, a former sub-postmistress, informed him: “Please stop making us still feel like victims.”

More than 700 Post Office department managers have been handed felony convictions between 1999 and 2015 after defective Fujitsu accounting software program referred to as Horizon made it seem as if cash was lacking from their shops. Mr Sunak stated ministers have been contemplating the choice of exonerating all these concerned.

Asked if the Government would take away the Post Office’s skill to analyze and prosecute, he stated: “The Justice Secretary is looking at the things that you’ve described, it wouldn’t be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there’s legal complexity in all of those things but he is looking at exactly those areas.”

Mr Sunak added: “Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice… The Government has paid out about £150 million to thousands of people already. Of course we want to get the money to the people as quickly as possible.”

Lee Castleton, who was portrayed by Will Mellor within the ITV drama concerning the scandal, stated the victims are “traumatised” and it’s “like a war” to try to get compensation. Mr Castleton went bankrupt after he was pursued by the courts and made to pay lots of of hundreds of kilos.

“The victims are traumatised. It has been a long time of 25 years and £135million has been paid to some of the victims, but we have had £150million-plus paid to lawyers. These lawyers are putting lots of pressure and it is difficult. The schemes are difficult,” he stated. “We are just normal run-of-the-mill people. We have legal people with us but it is so difficult and it is like a war. Why would anybody put the Post Office and DBT (the Department for Business and Trade) in charge of recompensing the victims?”

Ms Vennells was the CEO of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019 and was awarded a CBE in 2019 for companies to the organisation.

Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, stated final week that Ms Vennells ought to hand the honour again.“If I was Paula Vennells, I would say, well basically, the buck stops with me and I will hand back my CBE,” he informed Times Radio. “I think that will be the right thing for Paula Vennells to do.”