The Government tonight rejected contemporary allegations it had ordered the previous boss of the Post Office to stall on compensation funds to wronged postmasters.
Henry Staunton, the Post Office chairman between December 2022 and final month, claimed he was instructed by a high civil servant to ‘hobble’ into the election on the difficulty.
He stated Sarah Munby, who was then everlasting secretary on the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, warned him ‘now was not the time for coping with long-term points’ and he mustn’t ‘rip off the band support’.
In her first assembly with Mr Staunton on January 5 final yr, the senior mandarian can be stated to have instructed him that ‘politicians don’t essentially prefer to confront actuality’.
The bombshell claims had been included in a contemporaneous notice of the assembly made by Mr Staunton, which he shared with The Times.
But the Government tonight printed a letter from Ms Munby to Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch during which confused it was ‘not true’ that she ‘made any instruction, both explicitly or implicitly, to Mr Staunton to in any means delay compensation funds’.
Henry Staunton, who was Post Office chairman between December 2022 and final month, revealed how he was instructed to not ‘rip off the band support’ by a high civil servant
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch this week launched a livid fightback in a row over postmasters’ compensation and claimed Mr Staunton was spreading ‘made-up anecdotes’
The Horizon scandal noticed greater than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses handed felony convictions between 1999 and 2015
Mr Staunton was already caught up in an offended row with ministers after claiming on the weekend he was instructed to stall on compensation funds over the Horizon scandal to assist the Tories.
Mrs Badenoch launched a livid fightback and claimed Mr Staunton was spreading ‘made-up anecdotes’ after she fired him final month.
The Cabinet minister instructed MPs this week there was ‘no proof in any way’ of his account and branded it ‘a blatant try to hunt revenge’ for his sacking.
The Horizon scandal noticed greater than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses handed felony convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s defective Horizon system made it seem as if cash was lacking at their branches.
A public inquiry into what has been described as probably the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past is ongoing.
Anger on the remedy of subpostmasters grew after an ITV drama returned the difficulty to the highlight, which prompted the Government to final month promise a brand new regulation so these wrongly convicted are ‘swiftly exonerated and compensated’.
Top Whitehall official Sarah Munby confused it was ‘not true’ that she ‘made any instruction, both explicitly or implicitly, to Mr Staunton to in any means delay compensation funds’
In Mr Staunton’s memo of his first assembly with Ms Munby, which he’s stated to have found in his private emails yesterday, he remembers laying out the monetary challenges going through the Post Office.
It learn: ‘She stated we would have liked to know that within the run-up to the election there was no urge for food to “rip off the band aid”. “Now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues”.
‘We wanted a plan to “hobble” as much as the election.’
According to The Times, the notice steered that Ms Munby was referring to the Post Office’s general funds.
But Mr Staunton stated that by far the 2 largest objects the place the Post Office was in a position to fluctuate its spending had been compensation funds and substitute of the Horizon system.
In her letter to Mrs Badenoch, printed on the Government web site tonight, Ms Munby wrote: It just isn’t true that I made any instruction, both explicitly or implicitly, to Mr Staunton to in any means delay compensation funds.
‘I didn’t. Neither Mr Staunton’s notice, nor the contemporaneous notice that my workplace made, counsel in any other case.
‘In reality, no point out of delaying compensation seems in both notice.’
A Government spokesperson stated: ‘Sarah Munby’s letter units the file straight on her trade with Mr Staunton.
‘Neither of the data taken on the time counsel the Government – both at official or ministerial stage – wished to decelerate or delay compensation funds to postmasters, because the Secretary of State stated on Monday.
‘Funding for compensation is individually ringfenced expenditure, and isn’t accessible to the Post Office for any objective aside from compensation funds.
‘This is a distraction from the vital work to proceed to ship for postmasters, which the Business Secretary is targeted on.’
The Liberal Democrats demanded a investigation by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ethics adviser into whether or not Mrs Badenoch broke ministerial guidelines
The Liberal Democrats have demanded a investigation by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ethics adviser into whether or not Mrs Badenoch broke ministerial guidelines by branding Mr Staunton’s allegations about being instructed to stall compensation funds as ‘utterly false’.
The celebration’s deputy chief Daisy Cooper stated: ‘Time and once more Conservative ministers have undermined the integrity of our politics.
‘Now, this row embroiling Kemi Badenoch raises an entire collection of recent inquiries to which we urgently want solutions.
‘If Badenoch misled Parliament then she clearly breached the ministerial code. Subpostmasters – who’re on the coronary heart of this entire scandal – deserve justice, monetary redress and the reality.’