Postmasters demand Tories are punished at poll field for compensation delays

Postmasters are demanding the Government be punished on the poll field after it was accused of secretly pushing to delay compensation.

Ex-Post Office chairman Henry Staunton has claimed a senior official had informed him to stall on funds to victims of the Horizon IT scandal till after the election. In a bombshell interview, the ousted boss urged ministers to lastly give postmasters together with Alan Bates the compensation they deserve.

The Horizon IT system ruined the lives of tons of of Post Office staff when it mistakenly made it appear to be cash was lacking from their branches. Postmasters had been wrongly blamed for the shortfalls and made to cowl the losses, with greater than 900 convicted together with some who had been put in jail.

So far round £160million has been paid in compensation to 2,700 individuals via three completely different schemes, which works out at a median of £59,000 per claimant. Victims have complained about delays and warned that the system is just too bureaucratic.

Former postmasters in the present day voiced their anger at Mr Staunton’s declare {that a} senior civil servant had instructed him to carry up funds when he began as chairman simply over a yr in the past.

Christopher Head mentioned he was not “surprised” as he believed the Government was at all times “pulling the strings”. The 36-year-old turned Britain’s youngest postmaster when he took over his native department in West Bolden close to Sunderland in 2006, however was pushed out of enterprise after he was wrongly blamed for a £88,000 shortfall.

Mr Head mentioned that victims of the scandal had been being retraumatised by the Government’s failure to even pay correct compensation now. He rejected a suggestion in December that lined lower than 15% of his declare. He informed the Mirror: “The trauma that these people have been through, whether they’ve been to prison or not. And the problem is they start hanging on every word of the Government and the Prime Minister that they are going to be given full and fair compensation.

“And then when they actually do the complete opposite and don’t match those words with actions, they are simply retraumatising these people all over again. You are saying one thing, but delivering something completely different. They’re being gaslit and lied to on a continuous basis. These people are mentally on the edge.”

Mr Head added: “Obviously their argument always is that we have to be cautious of taxpayer money and that is absolutely right. But the fact is, by kicking the can down the road, by delaying, by using lawyers to make things extremely difficult and complicated, the only thing that that does is massively increase the cost to the taxpayer. We know that the postmasters will eventually – whenever that might be, whether that’s a year or another five years – will get the fair and full compensation they are due because somebody will simply have to put it right.”

Mr Head, who has always voted for the Conservatives since he was 18, said he will not be able to support the party at this year’s election.

Michael Rudkin, another victim, said: “Ministers and other people in authorities are slowly strangling and killing sub-postmasters.” He told Times Radio: “This authorities must be punished on the poll field… We’re now 24 years on. How lengthy is that this going to take?” Mr Rudkin, a former executive officer of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, was portrayed in the ITV drama Alan Bates Vs The Post Office. His wife Susan was wrongly convicted of stealing money.

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch last month removed Mr Staunton from his role as Post Office chairman, which he had held since December 2022. In an interview with the Sunday Times, the former WHSmith executive said he believed the Government should offer wronged sub-postmasters £1million each and described the three existing compensation schemes as “terribly bureaucratic”, “terribly pedantic”, “terribly unhelpful” and “terribly unsympathetic”.

Mr Staunton claimed a senior civil servant had encouraged him to hold back compensation when he took over as chairman. “Early on, I was told by a fairly senior person to stall on spending on compensation and on the replacement of Horizon, and to limp, in quotation marks – I did a file note on it – limp into the election,” he said.

“It was not an anti-postmaster thing, it was just straight financials. I didn’t ask, because I said, ‘I’m having no part of it – I’m not here to limp into the election, it’s not the right thing to do by postmasters.’ The word ‘limp’ gives you a snapshot of where they were.”

The Government said there was no evidence to back up Mr Staunton’s claim, which it said it “utterly refute[d]”.

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who is expected to give a statement in the Commons on Monday, said: “Henry Staunton had an absence of grip getting justice for postmasters. The severe considerations over his conduct had been the explanations I requested him to step down. That he selected to run to the media with made up anecdotes and a collection of falsehoods, confirms I made the proper resolution.”

Labour‘s Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds mentioned: “These are extremely severe allegations. The Horizon scandal is broadly accepted to be one of many worst miscarriages of justice in British historical past. Under no circumstances ought to compensation to victims be delayed and to take action for celebration political functions can be an extra insult to sub-postmasters. The Labour Party has referred to as for all sub-postmasters to be exonerated and compensation paid swiftly in order that victims can start to attract this terrible chapter to a detailed.”