Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch faced a growing row on Wednesday with the former Post Office chairman over a disputed request to delay compensation for sub-postmasters victim of the Horizon IT scandal.
In a Commons statement earlier this week, the Cabinet minister unleashed stinging criticism of ex-Post Office chairman Henry Staunton.
She bluntly rejected his claim that he was told by a senior civil servant to “stall” spending on compensation to sub-postmasters ahead of the next general election, saying “there is no evidence whatsoever that this is true”.
Mr Staunton, who was sacked by the Business Secretary last month, used a Sunday Times interview to suggest that the alleged request was linked to concerns about the cost of Horizon scandal compensation and timing of payments.
The Times reported on Wednesday that he had now found a note he made of the conversation with the senior civil servant and it said he had been advised to “hobble” into the election and not to “rip off the band aid” in terms of Post Office finances.
The reportedly contemporaneous memo of the meeting on January 5 last year suggested Mr Staunton was told “politicians do not necessarily like to confront reality” and that “now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues”.
Sir Keir Starmer piled pressure on Rishi Sunak over the row at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
He asked the PM if he would repeat allegations made by Ms Badenoch, that Mr Staunton was lying when he claimed “he was told to go slow on compensation for postmasters and limp to the next election”.
He asked the PM to investigate the claims, asking "why, rather than taking those accusations seriously, she [Ms Badenoch]accused a whistleblower of lying?"
Mr Sunak replied: “It is worth bearing in mind as the Business Secretary said on Monday, she asked Henry Staunton to step down after serious concerns were raised.”
He added that the independent statutory inquiry was “the right way to get victims the truth and the answers they demand” and the Government “is getting on getting them the compensation that they rightly deserve.”Asked about the reported note and whether it undermined Ms Badenoch’s position, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins earlier told Times Radio: “From what I’ve seen in the papers I would not say the notice is as clear as that.”
Ms Badenoch had parliamentary privilege when she launched her scathing criticism of Mr Staunton, claiming she dismissed him because of “serious concerns about his behaviour as chair” and that “my department found significant governance issues”.
But he will be in a similar position when he appears before the Commons business committee next Tuesday.
Committee chairman Liam Byrne tweeted: “ This means he can provide Parliament with evidence both on oath and under the protection of Parliamentary privilege.
“We’re looking forward to what hearing what he has to say.”
A Government source said: “The long-standing issues around Post Office finances are a matter of public record and do not include postmaster compensation which is being fully-funded by the Government.”
Mr Staunton took up the Post Office role in December 2022 following nine years as chairman of WH Smith.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Badenoch told MPs: “Mr Staunton claimed that I told him that someone’s got to take the rap for the Horizon scandal and that was the reason for his dismissal. That was not the reason at all.”
On Sunday, the BBC reported a spokesperson for Mr Staunton said his client stood by the accusations made in the Sunday Times and there was no investigation into him.
