Sir Ed Davey is facing fresh calls to quit as Liberal Democrat leader over the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Tory MPs stepped up pressure on Sir Ed, accusing him of failing to do enough in response to what has now emerged as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history.
Sir Ed is also now facing a challenge in his Kingston and Surbiton constituency from local councillor and former postal worker Yvonne Tracey, who branded him a “hypocrite” for not resigning as leader, having called for many other people to step down from prominent positions for other scandals.
The Lib Dem leader came under new pressure as Post Office and Fujitsu chiefs faced a grilling on Tuesday at the Business Committee over the prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses who were wrongly accused of fraud, theft and false accounting.
The MPs were also due to hear from Alan Bates, founder of the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance and from former sub-postmistress Jo Hamilton.
Post Office chief executive Nick Read and Fujitsu director Paul Patterson were expected to face a barrage of tough questions over the faulty Horizon software and how so many prosecutions were allowed to take place even when problems were raised about it.
But the political spotlight remained on Sir Ed, who was postal affairs minister between May 2010 and February 2012. Former postal services minister Paul Scully, MP for Sutton and Cheam, said: “It looks like he failed his first test of leadership.
But it’s up to the Lib-Dems to work out where they want to set the benchmark for their leader. I guess they will want to be consistent, with him having called for so many others to resign.”
Hendon MP Matthew Offord added: “It’s time he lived by his own rhetoric and resign as Lib Dem leader.”
Tewkesbury Tory MP Laurence Robertson said: “He has never been slow to call for other people to resign. He needs to consider whether it’s in his own interest and the public’s interest for him to continue (as party leader).”
Former Cabinet minister Sir John Redwood, the Wokingham MP who previously raised questions about the treatment of sub-postmasters, said: “He should say sorry for what he said and did and for what he did not do.
“He should have done more.”
Given that the Post Office was publicly-owned, he added: “You can delegate responsibility to a chairman and chief executive but you are ultimately responsible... you are the shareholder representative.”
It came after it was reported that a boss at Fujitsu worked for the Government when Sir Ed was postal affairs minister. Fujitsu UK chief exec Anwen Owen held Cabinet Office jobs from 2010 to 2012, when the coalition was first told of the sub-postmasters’ plight.
Meanwhile it was reported on Monday that Mr Davey’s brother, Henry Davey, had been a corporate partner at a law firm that was hired by the Post Office to fight litigation brought by hundreds of sub-postmasters.
Mr Davey was with Herbert Smith Freehills for a number of years until 2017 - two years before the firm was hired by the Post Office - according to the Daily Mail.
Sir Ed faces a constituency threat as Ms Tracey, of the Kingston Independent Residents Group and who used to work in New Malden’s Post Office, vowed to stand against him at the general election. “Ed Davey is a hypocrite.
He is the first person to call others out and demand they resign then refuses to step down himself,” she said. Sir Ed, initially declined to meet Mr Bates but later did, and said he “listened to him very closely” and that he put his questions to the relevant officials and executives. He claimed he was given a “conspiracy of lies” by postal chiefs.
But Sir Ed has been accused of not probing more to get to the truth and while he has expressed “regret” for not asking more questions he has repeatedly refused to say sorry to the sub-postmasters.
By Monday morning, just under 19,000 people had signed a petition started by Councillor Tracey calling for Sir Ed to return his knighthood over the Post Office scandal. There were more than a dozen postal affairs ministers during the Horizon scandal before the sub-postmasters’ fight for justice reached the High Court.
Former Lib Dem leader and ex-Twickenham MP Sir Vince Cable hit back at the criticism of Sir Ed, saying: “For the Tories to be turning this tragedy to party political advantage is dishonest and disreputable. Numerous ministers of all parties had the postal brief at some point. Scapegoating Ed is wrong.”
Shathyan Shiju, 57, a former west London post master who was wrongly accused of stealing £20,000 and contemplated suicide, said Ms Tracey was “a courageous woman” who had his full backing in her fight to win Sir Ed’s seat.
Mr Shiju, who ran a Post Office in Tolworth, in Sir Ed’s constituency, is fighting for a financial settlement after he lost his business and his home in the scandal. He told the Standard: “I was spat at and abused by people for something that was not my fault. I need treatment for my mental health. The way I was interrogated by the Post Office investigator was like being threatened by the mafia. Yvonne is standing up for us and she is a courageous woman and I back her all the way.”
