Kemi Badenoch says former Postmaster's claims are 'made up'

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has said the former Postmaster General's claims that he was asked to delay compensation payments to sub-postmasters are “completely false”.

Henry Staunton said he was asked to defer payments to allow the government to “interfere in the election,” apparently to help the state's finances.

But Badenoch accused him of spreading a “series of lies” and presenting “fabricated tales”.

Mr Staunton stood by his comments.

“Mr Staunton was not accustomed to resorting to fabrication or invention, and decided to go public out of a desire to ensure that the public was fully aware of the facts surrounding the multiple failures which have resulted in this country's postmasters having been so badly let down,” said a statement issued on his behalf in Late Monday.

The response came after Ms Badenoch made a statement to the House of Commons in which she said Mr Staunton's claims were a “blatant attempt at post-dismissal retaliation”.

She added: “There will be no benefit to us at all from delaying compensation.” “This has no significant impact on revenues at all – it would be crazy to even suggest it.”

She said there was “no evidence at all” that an official had asked Mr Staunton to defer compensation payments, later adding: “Indeed, if such a thing were said, it would be the responsibility of Mr Staunton himself to provide evidence.”

In response, a statement by Mr Staunton said he stood by the comment “which he recorded at the time in a memo he emailed to himself and colleagues, and thus traceable to a Post Office server”.

Mr. Staunton himself added: “It would have been in the interests of the company, as well as fairness to the postmasters, that there had been quicker progress in acquittals and that the compensation for wrongly convicted postmasters had been more generous, but we saw no real action until after the Mr Bates programme.” [on ITV].

“We will leave it to others to come to a conclusion about why this happened.”

The Post Office told the BBC that “it would not be appropriate for us to comment on confidential emails that are alleged to have been sent or not sent”.

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters and postmasters were wrongly sued after a faulty computer system called Horizon made it appear as if money was missing from their branches.

Some subpostmasters went wrongly to prison, and many were financially ruined. Some have since died.

The government has promised to quash convictions and pay compensation, but concerns have been raised about the speed and complexity of victims obtaining financial compensation, with only 33 claims being fully settled.

Mr Staunton, who sat on the boards of companies ranging from ITV to WH Smith, was appointed Postmaster General in December 2022, but was sacked by Ms Badenoch, who said last month that “new leadership” was needed to tackle the problem. scandal.

“Early on, I was asked by a fairly senior person to stall spending on reparations and Horizon replacement, and to intervene in quotes — I wrote a file memo about that — in the election,” he said. paper.

“It wasn't anti-postmaster, it was just straight financial stuff. I didn't ask, because I said, 'I don't have any part of it – I'm not here to interfere in the election, it's not the issue.' The right thing for postmasters to do.”

Mr Staunton also claimed that when he was sacked, Ms Badenoch told him: “Someone has to take responsibility.”

The Government denied allegations of delayed compensation, and Ms Badenoch responded to Mr Staunton, describing his comments as “disgraceful”.

She told MPs on Monday that the reason she sacked Mr Staunton was because “there were serious concerns about his conduct as chairman, including those raised by other board members”.

“While he was in office, a formal investigation was launched into allegations relating to Mr Staunton’s behaviour, which included serious matters such as bullying,” she said, adding that concerns had also been raised about his “willingness to co-operate” with the investigation.

She added, “It is extremely disappointing that he chose to spread a series of lies, provide made-up stories to journalists, and leak confidential discussions.”

In response to the bullying allegations, a spokesman for Mr Staunton said this was “the first time the existence of such allegations has been reported”.

“Mr. Staunton is not aware of any aspect of his behavior that could give rise to such allegations,” the statement added. “The Secretary of State certainly did not raise these matters at any stage, and certainly not during the conversation that led to Mr Staunton's dismissal.

“Such behavior would in any case be completely out of character.”

Late on Monday, a transcript of Mr. Staunton's January 27 dismissal phone call was made public. She noted that the Business Secretary had received a briefing on “management issues at the Post Office” and that the complaints against Mr Staunton were “so serious” that the Government needed to intervene.

The reading did not include the exact words “someone's got to handle the rap”, but Mr Staunton said he stood by his “characterization of the conversation”.

Jonathan Reynolds, Labour's shadow business secretary, said there were now “two completely contradictory accounts, one from the former head of the Post Office and one from the foreign secretary”.

“Only one of these accounts can be the truth,” he said. “What we need now is transparency and scrutiny.”

Liam Byrne, Labor MP and chair of the Business and Trade Committee, told the BBC he had contacted Staunton to attend next week's session.

The committee will hear evidence from Post Office chief executive Nick Read and Alan Bates, the former postmaster whose fight against the Post Office inspired a recent ITV drama about the scandal and brought it back into the spotlight.