Post Office chief was paid a lot while not doing a good job, says ex-minister

Nick Read arriving to give evidence to the Horizon IT inquiry in London last month. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

The former postal minister Kevin Hollinrake has said that the outgoing Post Office chief executive, Nick Read, was “paid lots whilst not doing a very good job”, and that working with him was like “drawing teeth”, the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal has heard.

Hollinrake, who held ministerial responsibility for the Post Office from October 2022 until the general election, gave a scathing assessment of the culture and management of the Post Office, describing it as an “inward looking, poorly led, dysfunctional organisation”.