The man who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon scandal should be knighted, a Cabinet minister said on Wednesday.
Esther McVey, Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office, who is known as the “Minister for Common Sense”, called for Alan Bates to be given the honour “as soon as possible”.
Downing Street did not shy away from the idea and it was also supported by Labour.
Mr Bates, 69, refused to accept an OBE in this year’s honours while the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells still held the CBE she received in 2019.
But now that Ms Vennells has said she will hand back the honour, Mr Bates could consider it for himself.
He told The Times: "I would wait until I was offered, if anyone chooses to offer me one, then come back and ask me."
Mr Bates was a subpostmaster in north Wales who was accused of theft when his money stock counts did not match those of the digital accounting system.
He was contractually obliged to pay back the “losses” from his own pocket, and, despite first reporting issues with Horizon in 2000, he had his contract terminated in 2003 when he refused to comply with Post Office policy.
He led the campaign group Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance to its High Court victory in 2019.
Mr Bates, now 69, and his partner, Suzanne Sercombe, started their Post Office outlet in Llandudno in 1998.
He first realised something was wrong when £6,000 went missing from his books and soon suspected it was down to Fijitsu’s flawed Horizon software system.
He refused to pay back the shortfall and was later closed down, losing some £60,000 that the couple had invested in the business.
The postmaster’s long-running battle for justice accelerated dramatically after ITV broadcast the harrowing drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, starring Toby Jones, which highlighted the scandal earlier this month.
“I’m not surprised the whole nation’s been moved by it,” Mr Bates told ITV’s This Morning on Tuesday.
Ms McVey, asked on GB News about the possibility of a knighthood for Mr Bates, responded: “As soon as possible, I hope, but obviously it’s got to go through the regular process.
“But I have to say when the New Year’s Honours List came through, I said I want to see more ordinary extraordinary people. And 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.”
Asked about her comments, the PM’s press secretary, replied: “That sounds like common sense.”
Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: “Alan Bates clearly has emerged as a hero throughout for the way in which he has led the campaign, the fortitude and resolve that he has shown given everything that has been thrown at him.
“Obviously, honours have their own independent process but I’m sure that is something that the public would regard as entirely appropriate and we would support.”
The system of awarding honours is complex and has various criteria over the awarding of knighthoods, CBEs, OBEs and other honours.
Whitehall's foreiture committee will now go through the official process of withdrawing it.
Rishi Sunak announced on Wednesday that a new law will be introduced to exonerate hundreds of Post Office branch managers caught up in the Horizon IT scandal.
He stressed that they were victims of “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.
More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of swindling money or false accounting and overall around 2,800 were caught up in the Horizon scandal.
The Prime Minister told MPs: “We will introduce new primary legislation to ensure that those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated and compensated.”
Mr Sunak also announced a new upfront payment of £75,000 for the “vital” GLO group of postmasters who took action against the Post Office.
The GLO Scheme is an ex gratia claims-based scheme for postmasters who were part of the action Alan Bates and Others v Post Office Ltd pursued under a Group Litigation Order, and who do not have a Horizon-related conviction.
The new legislation will apply to convictions in England and Wales and Downing Street hopes they will be quashed by the end of the year.
But Mr Bates has warned people to seek legal advice before accepting any lump sums being offered by the Government.
In an interview with the Mirror he said: “The overturning of convictions is very good news but the priority remains full financial redress to everyone impacted. £75,000 is an alternative to having your case independently assessed, so for the smaller cases, it will probably suffice, But for many cases, it is not enough.
“If someone’s lost their home, business, earning potential, cashed in their pensions, there’s been vast costs over the years. We’re talking over 15, 20 years. It is certainly going to be more than £75,000.
“How you can put a price of the PTSD many are suffering. The Government still haven’t addressed the issues of mental health support and treatment needed for not just the victims but the families, too.”
