Post Office scandal - live: Rishi Sunak announces new law to quash convictions of Horizon victims
More than 100 others involved have come forward since ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office aired
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Your support makes all the difference.Rishi Sunak has announced new legislation to exonerate wrongly convicted Post Office branch managers after one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
The prime minister also said there would be a new upfront payment of £75,000 for some of those affected.
Mr Sunak said a new law would be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated’’.
He told the Commons: “This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history.
“People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation.”
Another 130 people affected by the scandal have now come forward since a new TV programme dramatising the miscarriage of justice aired, postal services minister Kevin Hollinrake said.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) would normally look at individual convictions and send them to the Court of Appeal. But only 93 of at least 700 convictions have been overturned to date.
See below how our coverage unfolded:
Sunak confirms new law quash convictions of Horizon scandal victims
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said a new law would be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.
Rishi Sunak announces new legislation to exonerate wrongly convicted Post Office branch managers
Rishi Sunak has announced new legislation to exonerate wrongly convicted Post Office branch managers after one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
The prime minister also said there would be a new upfront payment of £75,000 for some of those affected.
Mr Sunak said a new law would be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated’’.
Rishi Sunak announces new law to exonerate wrongly convicted Post Office managers
Follows one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history
Rishi Sunak claimed reports he once did not agree with the Rwanda plan were “second hand” information, as he insisted the Government would deliver on its promise.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Back in 2022 when Boris Johnson claimed he would send asylum seekers to Rwanda, one ambitious Tory MP had reservations.
“He agreed with Labour that it wouldn’t work. It was a waste of money, it was the latest in a long line of gimmicks. Does the Prime Minister know what happened to that MP?”
The Prime Minister replied: “What he refers to is a document that he hasn’t seen, I haven’t seen, and has been reported second hand in a bunch of media newspapers.
“But what I can tell him is I am absolutely clear that you do need to stop the boats and that is what this Government and that MP is going to deliver.”
Rishi Sunak ‘doesn’t get Britain’, Keir Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer has said the country deserves better than a prime minister who “doesn’t get Britain”.
In an attack on the PM, the Labour leader said: “He just doesn’t get it, he doesn’t get what a cost of living crisis feels like, he doesn’t know any schools where kids no longer turn up and he doesn’t understand what it’s like to wait for a hospital appointment.”
He added: “Doesn’t the country deserve so much better than a prime minister who simply doesn’t get Britain?”
Mr Sunak hit back at Sir Keir for making a lengthy speech last week which he said “did not contain a single new idea”.
And in a message to voters the PM said the choice was “crystal clear”, they can “stick with us to deliver long term change… or go back to square one with Labour”.
PM ‘caught red handed’ - Starmer
Rishi Sunak has been “caught red handed opposing the very thing that he has now made his flagship policy”, Sir Keir Starmer said.
The Labour leader told the Commons: “I notice he didn’t deny it. I am not surprised, £400 million of taxpayers money down the drain, no one sent to Rwanda, small boats still coming. It is hardly a surprise he wanted to scrap the scheme when he was trying to sneak in as Tory leader.
“But he has been caught red handed opposing the very thing that he has now made his flagship policy. Which member should we listen to, the one before us today or the one who used to believe in something?”
The prime minister replied: “I have always been crystal clear you do need to have an effective deterrence to finally solve this problem, in fact the National Crime Agency agree that you need in their words an effective removals and deterrence agreement and that is why after becoming Prime Minister I negotiated a new deal with Albania, thanks to which we have seen a 93% drop in illegal arrivals from Albania.”
After listing similar schemes by other nations, Mr Sunak added: “He is the only one opposed to a proper deterrent, not because it doesn’t work but because he doesn’t actually believe in controlling migration.
Starmer accuses Sunak of not believing in the ‘Rwanda gimmick'
Sir Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of not believing in the “Rwanda gimmick”.
Speaking in the Commons, Sir Keir said: “We should smash the gangs, process the claims and end hotel use, that’s our plan, unlike the prime minister I believe in it.”
He added: “When he finally finds something he was right about, the Rwanda gimmick, he can’t even take credit for it.”
The Labour leader also branded the prime minister “Mr Nobody”, saying: “Last year he started the year saying he was ‘Mr Steady’, then at his conference he was ‘Mr Change’, now he’s flipped back to ‘Mr More of the same’, it doesn’t matter how many relaunches, flip-flops he does he will always be ‘Mr Nobody’.”
Rishi Sunak was asked (and pointedly did not answer) whether he personally met a man named Akhil Tripathi last April before he paid the PM £38,000 for the hire of a private jet.
Sunak has been criticised for the donation before, but has not been asked whether he met him before the donation yet.
The PM’s replied that his meetings “are declared in the normal way”.
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