Horizon inquiry has shown evidence of ‘incompetence and malevolence’ by Post Office, says minister – as it happened

5.47pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Rishi Sunak has announced a plan to grant an unprecedented blanket acquittal for hundreds of post office operators wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal. Responding to an urgent question about this after PMQs, Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minster, said the inquiry into the scandal had shown that the Post Office acted not just with incompetence, but with “malevolence” too. (See 12.49pm.)

• Lawyers have warned against setting a precedent of government interference in the justice system after the plans for blanket laws to exonerate the post office operators were announced. As PA Media reports, while many welcomed proposals for legislation which could clear the names of hundreds of post office branch managers in England and Wales by the end of the year, some barristers and solicitors cautioned the government against setting a “legal and constitutional precedent”. Sam Townend KC, chairman of the Bar Council, said:

We will examine the proposals carefully. Anxious care should be taken as to ensuring the independence of the judiciary and the government must be careful about setting legal and constitutional precedent.

There are many lessons to be learned from the Post Office scandal. Not only is there a clear case for parliament to review the ability of certain corporate bodies to bring private prosecutions but it also highlights the vital importance of access to legal advice and the urgent need to repair confidence in the justice system.

• Pressure is mounting on the government to review more than £2bn in new contracts awarded to Fujitsu since a court ruling in 2019 found its Horizon IT system caused accounting errors that were blamed on more than 900 post office operators who were then wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office.

• Michael Gove has refused to set a deadline for an independent report on allegations of “corruption, wrongdoing and illegality” at Teesworks, the industrial development within the government’s high-profile freeport project.

• The estimated cost of the HS2 line from London to Birmingham has ballooned to as much as £66bn, the scheme’s executive chair has told MPs.

Kevin Hollinrake, the minister for postal affairs, responding to an urgent question about the Post Office Horizon scandal. Photograph: Maria Unger/UK Parliament/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 5.55pm GMT

4.40pm GMT

Public approve of government's handling of Israel-Hamas war more than Labour's, poll suggests

One of the reasons why many Tories fear they have no chance of winning the next election is because the Labour party is ahead on all the issues that count. Here is a chart from a UK in a Changing Europe report on public opinion published last month that shows Labour leading on the economy, law and order, the NHS, education, housing and immigration. On other mainstream issues, Labour would be ahead too.

Polling on issues. Photograph: UK in a Changing Europe

But today it has emerged that the Conservatives have a lead on at least one issue, and it is a surprising one. YouGov polling commissioned by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) shows that people think the government’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been better than Labour’s.

Asked about the government’s handling of the conflict, 17% of respondents said they approved and 29% said they disapproved – a net score of –12.

But, asked about Labour’s handling of the conflict, only 9% said they approved and 30% said they disapproved – a net score of -21.

This is surprising in some respects because, in terms of what they have said about the conflict, it is very hard to differentiate between the UK government’s position and the shadow cabinet’s. The poll, which also found 71% of people in favour of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and only 12% opposed, seems to have been commissioned with the intention of showing that both main parties are out of touch with public opinion. The Tories and Labour have both avoided calling for an immediate ceasefire, advocating humanitarian pauses instead.

As for why the figures for the two parties are so different, there are probably three main explanations.

First, the figures reflect the fact that Tory-leaning voters are more likely to say they back the government’s approach (30%) but not to say they back Labour’s approach (8%). Labour-leaning voters, on this issue at least, are a bit less tribal. Some 47% of them disapprove of the government’s approach, but 35% of them disapprove of Labour’s too.

Second, Keir Starmer has faced at least eight frontbench resignations over his Gaza policy, and dozens more at councillor level. For many respondents, that must compound the perception that his response has been problematic.

And, third, YouGov asked about the government’s handling of the conflict, not the Conservative party’s. The results might have been different if the Tories had been mentioned in the question because their reputation is so toxic.

Chris Doyle, the director of Caabu, said the findings should be a wake-up call. He said:

This poll shows a total and utter lack of public confidence in the way both the UK government and the Labour party have handled this. The figures could hardly be lower. This should be a wake-up call to the political leaderships to realign themselves both with public sentiment, international law and the need to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Updated at 5.32pm GMT