Blair accepted Fujitsu deal regardless of warning Horizon seemed ‘flawed’
- Tony Blair had a relationship with Fujitsu and met its bosses in Japan and Britain
- He was PM when contracts have been awarded to Fujitsu, together with the Horizon deal
Post workplace scandal victims have accused Sir Tony Blair of getting a comfy relationship with the Japanese IT agency behind the software program that ruined their lives.
It emerged the previous PM signed off on the £900million Post Office contract with Fujitsu in 1999 regardless of being warned that the agency’s Horizon accounting software program seemed ‘more and more flawed’.
Now the MoS can reveal Mr Blair had shut hyperlinks with the agency going again years. He travelled for personal briefings with Fujitsu bosses in Japan in 1996, a yr earlier than he entered No10, and met its executives in his Sedgefield constituency.
He went on to supervise a number of billion-pound Government contracts handed to Fujitsu whereas he was in energy. Last evening, victims mentioned Mr Blair had ‘very critical inquiries to reply’.
Chris Trousdale, 41, who was convicted of fraud, mentioned Mr Blair’s relationship with the agency was ‘extraordinarily tight’. He added: ‘The Horizon system was identified to be flawed, however Blair selected it anyway. We should know why.’
Tony Blair, seen right here along with his spouse Cherie Blair, visited Japan in 1998. He had met Fujitsu officers throughout a go to to Japan two years earlier, earlier than he was PM
Blair was Prime Minister when a number of billion-pound Government contracts have been handed to Fujitsu
Fujitsu operated a plant in Mr Blair’s Sedgefield constituency, and the politician met with the positioning’s new supervisor there in 1995
Last evening, former postmistress Wendy Martin, 53, who was left bankrupt, mentioned: ‘Tony Blair had a really cosy relationship with Fujitsu. They have been in one another’s pockets. He needs to be held to account.’
Fujitsu operated a plant in Mr Blair’s Sedgefield constituency, and the politician met with the positioning’s new supervisor there in 1995. The following yr, he flew to Japan, the place Fujitsu’s bosses briefed him as an alternative of the Tory authorities in energy on the time about its plans to arrange new laboratories in London.
Two months earlier than he signed off on the Horizon deal in May 1999, Mr Blair wrote a letter to Fujitsu’s chairman Tadashi Sekizawa praising the corporate’s ‘deep and longstanding dedication to the UK’.
A spokesman for the previous PM mentioned: ‘Mr Blair had nothing no matter to do with awarding contracts to Fujitsu, which presumably have been awarded beneath regular procurement guidelines. It is now clear the Horizon product was significantly flawed, resulting in tragic and unacceptable penalties, and Mr Blair has deep sympathy with all these affected.’
