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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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:
HS2 cost has nearly doubled, chairman admits
Building HS2 between London and Birmingham alone will cost as much as £66.6bn, almost twice the original estimate for the entire project, according to Sir Jon Thompson, the executive chair of HS2 Ltd:
HS2 cost soars to £66.6bn, company boss admits
The executive chair of HS2 Ltd said the cost has almost doubled from an initial estimate under Gordon Brown’s government that it would cost just £37.5bn
Government must consider suspending Fujitsu, says ex-minister
The Government should review all of its contracts with Fujitsu and should consider suspending the company if it “won’t do the right thing”, Conservative former minister Mark Francois has said.
“On Fujitsu, they’re a multi-billion-dollar company with numerous Government contracts, including a number with the Ministry of Defence. They have persistently for years been reluctant to admit the weakness in their system,” he told MPs.
“Does the minister agree they now have a moral duty, if not directly a legal one, to put right that wrong. We should review all their Government contracts and if they won’t do the right thing, which they should, we should consider suspending?”
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “I think it’s right that we let the process take its course, that the inquiry looks at who is responsible for what... who was responsible for this between the Post Office and Fujitsu, who told who to do what.
“And I think it’s only right that we have a process therefore where we do set some criteria, some parameters about who can access Government contracts.
“So those are conversations we should have when we’ve identified exactly who is responsible. We won’t be able to do that for some months yet but we’re keen to do it as soon as we possibly can.”
Ex-Post Office chief ‘refused to meet minister without her lawyer'
A Conservative former minister claimed ex-Post Office chief Paula Vennells refused to meet him while he was in Government without her lawyer present.
George Freeman, a former business minister, told the Commons how when he was covering for an absent minister, he asked to meet Ms Vennells. “I was told she would refuse to meet me without her lawyer,” he said.
He urged the Government to look at recovering money from the Post Office, as well as learning “wider lessons from this appalling scandal”.
Mr Freeman added: “I want to highlight that this saga raises some very important issues about scrutiny, accountability, responsibility in our public office and in public administration, difficult questions that this House must tackle.”
Sunak and Starmer agree Alan Bates should be knighted
Demands for Alan Bates to receive a knighthood for his decades-long fight for justice for subpostmasters hit by the Horizon scandal has received backing from Downing Street.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokeswoman said it would be “common sense” to honour the crusading former subpostmaster after a mass quashing of convictions was announced.
It was reported last week that Mr Bates refused an OBE while former Post Office boss Paula Vennells still held the CBE she received. But MPs and campaigners have called for Mr Bates’s honour to be re-submitted now that Ms Vennells has agreed to relinquish hers in the face of a public outcry.
Senior minister Esther McVey said she wanted Mr Bates to be knighted “as soon as possible”.
“Anybody can nominate him and I’m quite sure we will see Sir Alan as soon as possible,” the Tory MP told GB News.
The Prime Minister’s press secretary argued that it was “hard to think of someone more deserving of being rewarded through the honours system than him”.
Asked if she agreed about the knighthood with Ms McVey, who is nicknamed the “minister for common sense”, the official said: “That sounds like common sense to me.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is also backing the move. His spokesman said: “I think Alan Bates clearly has emerged as a hero.”
In full: Sunak confirms new law to exonerate wrongly convicted subpostmasters
All the details of today’s announcement in full:
Sunak confirms wrongly convicted subpostmasters to be exonerated
Victims of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history will get extra £75,000
Tory rebels launch plan to ‘toughen’ Rwanda bill
Rishi Sunak is braced for a Commons showdown over his Rwanda plan after being warned by Tory MPs that the proposal will not work unless it is significantly beefed up. As the right wing of the Conservative Party gears up for a parliamentary battle, the Prime Minister was warned by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick that the plan “simply doesn’t work” in its current form:
Right-wing Tory rebels launch plan to ‘toughen’ Rwanda bill
PM must ‘fix this bill’, warns hardliner Robert Jenrick – as 30 MPs back amendments
Force Post Office to say how much money it took, says ex-postmaster MP
The Post Office should be forced to reveal how much money it “stole” from innocent people during the Horizon scandal, according to a former subpostmaster.
Conservative MP Duncan Baker, who worked in the role in Norfolk before being elected in 2019, said the sum was expected to total hundreds of millions of pounds although no figure has ever been provided.
Mr Baker (North Norfolk) told the Commons: “One question that has never been answered is just how much money was taken unlawfully from thousands of innocent men and women.
“The Post Office took that money, we have never known that figure.
“Even the most basic accountant knows that it will run into hundreds of millions of pounds. So could the minister find out from the Post Office - force them to publish - just the grand scale of how much money they stole from people?”
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake replied: “The money was taken, somebody must have noticed that money - you’d think the finance department would have noticed that money, you’d think auditors would have noticed that money.”
He added: “I will endeavour to find out the number. I don’t have a number.”
Watch again: Taylor Swift tickets easier to get than NHS dental appointments, ministers told
Taylor Swift tickets ‘easier to get’ than NHS dental appointments, ministers told
Taylor Swift tickets are easier to get than an NHS dental appointment, ministers have been told. Labour MP Ashley Dalton drew laughter in the House of Commons as she made the comments on Tuesday 9 January. The warning came as the government was urged to grasp the crisis in access to NHS dental care across England. “It’s easier to get your hands on Taylor Swift tickets in 2024 than it is to get an NHS dental appointment,” Ms Dalton said. She also claimed she was met with “laughter down the phone” when trying to register herself and her 88-year-old mother with a new NHS dentist.
Letting ex-PO chief stay in Cabinet Office job was mistake, minister admits
Many would see Paula Vennells remaining as a Cabinet Office director as a mistake, business minister Kevin Hollinrake said.
Mr Hollinrake told the Commons: “I think it was right and proper that the former CEO Paula Vennells handed back her CBE.
“It clearly was prior to my time in Government, but she raises some interesting points, I don’t know the answer to her question. I think with hindsight many people would see that as a mistake, but very happy to take that away.”
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