Why did it take a TV drama rather than Parliament to throw a blinding light on the monstrous injustice suffered by thousands of Post Office shop owners? An answer of sorts came in Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
The Horizon computer system was introduced under Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1999 to automate book-keeping in Post Offices. Criminal prosecutions of sub-postmasters soon followed when discrepancies emerged in their accounts.
Despite mounting complaints about its unreliability, the system was defended by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition from 2010 including by current Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey when he was the relevant minister.
So none of the leading parties in England was without sin - a point readily seized on by SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn at Rishi Sunak’s weekly grilling to buttress his case that Scotland should go its own way.
“I don’t think the Prime Minister quite gets it. This isn’t just a plague on all their houses, this is a plague on this House (of Commons) itself,” Mr Flynn said. “The reality is that sub-postmasters never stood a chance against the Westminster establishment, did they?”
The PM stressed that the Government had acted after a 2019 case in the High Court finally vindicated the sub-postmasters, by instituting a statutory inquiry and offering compensation. “This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history," he admitted.
But the inquiry grinds on, and many of the victims say the Post Office has dragged out compensation payments.
Responding to the mounting outcry since ITV’s broadcast of “Mr Bates vs the Post Office”, Mr Sunak said the Government would introduce legislation to ensure those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.
“I am sad that Mr Flynn is trying to politicise something that has happened over multiple decades, with multiple people at fault,” the PM added.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer appeared keen to immunise himself from the Post Office “plague”. He quickly moved past the scandal to ridicule Mr Sunak about his Rwanda deportation scheme, which faces mounting disquiet on the Tory backbenches.
Sir Keir has faced his own questioning over why, when he headed the Crown Prosecution Service, he failed to intervene to stop the private prosecutions by Post Office bosses.
“A plague o' both your houses!” is declared by Romeo’s best friend in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, denouncing the play’s feuding dynasties as he lies dying.
Four of the wrongly accused sub-postmasters have killed themselves. Thirty-three others died before getting a chance to see justice. Survivors have welcomed the Government’s intervention now, but justifiably wonder why it took so long.
Further drama awaits in Parliament next Tuesday when MPs will get to grill executives from Fujitsu, the Japanese IT giant that developed Horizon and which stands accused of ignoring the bugs responsible for sending so many innocent people to jail.
