Summary of the day …
The former senior judge who ran the mediation service between the Post Office and the Justice for Subposmasters Alliance in the early 2010s has described the Horizon IT scandal as “the greatest scandal that I have ever seen”. He said after working on the mediation project, which was ultimately cancelled by the Post Office, that “My initial view that it was very unlikely that these people had stolen money remained.”
Former MP James Arbuthnot, who is now a Conservative peer, told a public inquiry that the Post Office appeared to have been operating a “behind-the-scenes deception process” about the reliability of its faulty Horizon computer system. Arbuthnot, who campaign on the issue for years as an MP, said “I think that with the help of this inquiry, we are moving belatedly to the right place.”
Rishi Sunak has doubled down on the UK’s decision not to suspend arms sales to Israel, echoing foreign secretary David Cameron’s words from yesterday by saying that “none of our closest allies” have stopped existing export licences. On LBC this morning, Sunak said the UK has a “long-established process” relating to the arms export regime and “we review these things regularly”. Sunak also criticised Nato allies for failing to increase defence spending
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has renewed Labour’s calls for the government to publish its legal advice on Israel’s military action in Gaza, saying there were “real, deep, serious concerns” about the war.
Three people have been charged with public order offences after a pro-Palestine demonstration outside Labour leader Keir Starmer’s home, the Metropolitan police have said.
The prime minister has said again that he is “confident” his government can get its plan to deport to Rwanda asylum seekers who have reached the UK. The Financial Times has reported that Rwanda’s state-owned airline turned down a UK government proposal to transport asylum seekers, with reports that it considered it “brand damaging.”
The Times has reported that Sunak faces a cabinet revolt if he continues with his threat to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR). It names Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly among those opposing the move, alongside ten others. Sunak again this morning on LBC said he would not let what he called a “foreign court” prevent his government’s Rwanda deportation policy from coming into operation.
The UK taxpayer spent £4.3bn (27.9%) of the total UK international aid budget on supporting the housing and food costs of refugees based in Britain, an increase of £600m from 2022, new official government aid statistics for 2023 show.
The government is investing more than £55m in expanding facial recognition systems – including vans that will scan crowded high streets – as part of a renewed crackdown on shoplifting. Sunak appeared with police in a shopping centre in Horsham to promote the scheme.
Sunak has tried to deflect criticism of his handling of the William Wragg sexting scandal by saying that Starmer has been weak about Angela Rayner’s tax affairs. Wragg voluntarily resigned the Tory whip yesterday, days after the scandal first emerged.
Ministers are reportedly considering banning the sale of smartphones to children under the age of 16 after a number of polls have shown significant public support for such a curb.
Police Scotland received 7,152 complaints under Scotland’s new hate crime law in the first week of operation, with 240 hate crimes and 30 non-crime hate incidents recorded, the force has announced.
Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, has described a poll from YouGov that puts Labour ahead of the SNP in Westminster voting intentions for the first time since 2014 as “a huge moment”.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, today. I should be back with you tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your evening and I will see you then.
Sir Anthony Hooper: Post Office Horizon IT cases are 'the greatest scandal that I have ever seen'
Sir Anthony Hooper, the former senior judge who chaired the mediation panel in the early 2010s to try to resolve claims between the justice for subpostmasters campaign and the Post Office involving the Horizon IT system has described it as “the greatest scandal that I have ever seen”
Speaking at the end of giving evidence remotely to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, he said “In the criminal justice process, we’ve had many miscarriages of justice, but nowhere near as many of these.”
He went on to say “we need to reevaluate how we approach criminal cases of this kind. Something went very, very wrong and I don’t envy the chairman’s task and trying to find out how it all started. Something went very, very wrong.”
Hooper said one of his concerns was cutbacks in legal aid, saying that it used to be that senior members of the bar would work on cases on legal aid, but “that’s all gone now, largely gone.”
He also sugggested the justice system needed a fundamental reform, saying:
All that a prosecutor has to establish … is enough evidence to support a conviction. That is a very low threshold. It means defence have to do a large amount of work to see whether there is some alternative to guilty.
He was highly critical of the Post Office refusal to countenance in public that there were any problems with the Horizon IT system, leading to them by default assuming that any criticism of it or suggestion it was malfunctioning was untrue.
Hooper said in many years as an appeals judge, the largest problem he saw over and over again was non-disclosure.
Yesterday’s session of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry began with lead counsel Jason Beer KC again criticising for late disclosure of documents by the Post Office to the inquiry.
