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Horizon inquiry has shown evidence of ‘incompetence and malevolence’ by Post Office, says minister – as it happened
Hollinrake says Post Office Horizon inquiry has shown evidence of ‘not only incompetence, but malevolence’
Kevin Hollinrake, the minister for postal services, is now responding to the UQ about the Post Office Horizon scandal.
He refers to the announcement made by the PM earlier.
And he says 30 people who suffered wrongful convictions have now accepted the £600,000 upfront offer as an alternative to going through the detailed compensation assessment scheme. Previously only five people had accepted this.
He says, under the plan announced by the PM, people will be able to apply for a £75,000 upfront payment. But they will still be able to go through the detailed compensation scheme if they want.
He says the evidence from the inquiry has shown evidence of “not only incompetence, but malevolence in many of their actions” by the Post Office. This evidence was not available at the time of the prosecutions, he says.
UPDATE: Hollinrake said:
Hundreds of convictions remain extant. Some of those convictions will have relied on evidence from the discredited Horizon system; others will have been the result of appalling failures of the Post Office’s investigation and prosecution functions. The evidence already emerging from Sir Wyn Williams’s inquiry has shown not only incompetence, but malevolence in many of their actions. This evidence was not available to the courts when they made their decisions on individual cases. So far, 95 out of more than 900 convictions have been overturned. We know that postmasters have been reluctant to apply to have their convictions overturned-many of them have decided that they have been through enough and cannot face further engagement with authority. Many fear having their hopes raised, only for them to be dashed yet again.
Afternoon summary
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Lawyers have warned against setting a precedent of government interference in the justice system after the plans for blanket laws to exonerate the post office operators were announced. As PA Media reports, while many welcomed proposals for legislation which could clear the names of hundreds of post office branch managers in England and Wales by the end of the year, some barristers and solicitors cautioned the government against setting a “legal and constitutional precedent”. Sam Townend KC, chairman of the Bar Council, said:
We will examine the proposals carefully. Anxious care should be taken as to ensuring the independence of the judiciary and the government must be careful about setting legal and constitutional precedent.
There are many lessons to be learned from the Post Office scandal. Not only is there a clear case for parliament to review the ability of certain corporate bodies to bring private prosecutions but it also highlights the vital importance of access to legal advice and the urgent need to repair confidence in the justice system.
Public approve of government’s handling of Israel-Hamas war more than Labour’s, poll suggests
One of the reasons why many Tories fear they have no chance of winning the next election is because the Labour party is ahead on all the issues that count. Here is a chart from a UK in a Changing Europe report on public opinion published last month that shows Labour leading on the economy, law and order, the NHS, education, housing and immigration. On other mainstream issues, Labour would be ahead too.
But today it has emerged that the Conservatives have a lead on at least one issue, and it is a surprising one. YouGov polling commissioned by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) shows that people think the government’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been better than Labour’s.
Asked about the government’s handling of the conflict, 17% of respondents said they approved and 29% said they disapproved – a net score of –12.
But, asked about Labour’s handling of the conflict, only 9% said they approved and 30% said they disapproved – a net score of -21.
This is surprising in some respects because, in terms of what they have said about the conflict, it is very hard to differentiate between the UK government’s position and the shadow cabinet’s. The poll, which also found 71% of people in favour of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and only 12% opposed, seems to have been commissioned with the intention of showing that both main parties are out of touch with public opinion. The Tories and Labour have both avoided calling for an immediate ceasefire, advocating humanitarian pauses instead.
As for why the figures for the two parties are so different, there are probably three main explanations.
First, the figures reflect the fact that Tory-leaning voters are more likely to say they back the government’s approach (30%) but not to say they back Labour’s approach (8%). Labour-leaning voters, on this issue at least, are a bit less tribal. Some 47% of them disapprove of the government’s approach, but 35% of them disapprove of Labour’s too.
Second, Keir Starmer has faced at least eight frontbench resignations over his Gaza policy, and dozens more at councillor level. For many respondents, that must compound the perception that his response has been problematic.
And, third, YouGov asked about the government’s handling of the conflict, not the Conservative party’s. The results might have been different if the Tories had been mentioned in the question because their reputation is so toxic.
Chris Doyle, the director of Caabu, said the findings should be a wake-up call. He said:
This poll shows a total and utter lack of public confidence in the way both the UK government and the Labour party have handled this. The figures could hardly be lower. This should be a wake-up call to the political leaderships to realign themselves both with public sentiment, international law and the need to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In its splash on the Post Office Horizon scandal this morning the Daily Telegraph said that at least 27 of the prosecutions were brought by the Crown Prosecution Service, not the Post Office, “raising serious questions about whether Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, oversaw a number of wrongful convictions during his five-year tenure as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013”.
At Labour’s post-PMQs briefing, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer said Starmer was not aware of these cases when he was DPP. They did not cross his desk, the spokesperson said.
Kevin Hollinrake, the minister for postal services, has now finished responding to the UQ on the Post Office Horizon scandal. It went on for more than an hour and a half.
Here is our story about the announcement.
Keir Starmer would also back Alan Bates getting a knighthood. (See 2.03pm.) At a post-PMQs briefing, Starmer’s spokesperson was asked about this campaign and said:
Alan Bates clearly has emerged as a hero throughout this for the way in which he has led the campaign, the fortitude and resolve he was shown given everything that has been thrown at him throughout this process.
Obviously honours have their own independent process, but I’m sure that is something the public would regard as entirely appropriate and we would support.
No 10 backs call for Post Office justice campaigner Alan Bates to receive knighthood
Esther McVey, who has embraced the title of “minister for common sense” in her role as Cabinet Office minister without portfolio, has told GB News that she hopes Alan Bates, the post office operator who led the campaign to get justice for colleagues wrongly convicted, gets a knighthood. She said:
I’m quite convinced this man is an extraordinary person and the public will be behind him. Anybody can nominate him and I’m quite sure we will see Sir Alan as soon as possible.
As Harry Cole from the Sun reports, at the post-PMQs lobby briefing, the PM’s secretary more or less confirmed the knighthood was in the post.
NEW: No10 back knighthood for Alan Bates after Minister for Common Sense Esther McVey says it should be done “as soon as possible.”
PM’s Press Secretary says “that sounds like common sense to me.”
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 10, 2024
It is certainly a popular cause. This is from John Stevens, Cole’s opposite number at the Daily Mirror, highlighting a petition on 38 Degrees for Bates to receive a CBE or a knighthood.
But there is also something a bit depressing about the way the honours system means that almost every story about public success or failure in Britain ends up being refracted into a question about who gets, or loses, a gong. Does this happen in other countries?
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells refused to hold meeting with minister without her lawyer being present, MPs told
George Freeman (Con) says that he was never minster for postal services, but that he was asked to cover that portfolio at some point. When he needed to deal with this issue, instead of just accepting the line he was given, he asked for a proper briefing. But he was told Paula Vennells, the Post Office boss, said she would refuse to meet him unless accompanied by her lawyer.
UPDATE: Freeman said:
I was never minister for the Post Office, but I remember as a minister in the department being asked to cover for an absent minister, and when refusing to just read out the speech but ask for a proper day of briefings from officials, and asked to meet Paula Vennells, I was told she would refuse to meet me without her lawyer …
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.
Karl Turner (Lab) asks if the government will ensure that the Post Office is never allowed to prosecute anyone ever again.
Hollinrake says the government has been looking at this issue. The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has concerns about this, he says. He says he expects Chalk to make a statement to MPs at some point.
Back in the Commons Maria Miller (Con) says this case highlights the need to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases like this, because the Post Office used them to silence critics of what it was doing. Does Hollinrake agree they should not be used in cases like this?
Hollinrake says he will be happy to speak to Miller about her concerns. But he says non-disclosure agreements cannot stop people going to the police when they suspect wrongdoing.
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson was unable to say how many sub-post office operators would be affected by the legislation, or how much compensation would be paid.
And he said the government would be working with administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where justice is devolved, to ensure Post Office workers in those countries subject to unsafe convictions are also cleared.
