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MPs returned to Parliament this week as the UK Government faced a sticky situation following the airing of a particularly powerful ITV drama.
Trouble on the Horizon
Westminster has largely been gripped by one story this week, that of what to do about the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Since the turn of the year, the scandal – which went on between 1999 and 2015 - has suddenly come into sharp focus following the airing of an ITV drama about the major miscarriage of justice.
The scandal saw hundreds of staff falsely accused of stealing money by the Post Office after shortfalls thanks to an IT failure.
Ever since Mr Bates vs the Post Office shook the nation, the UK Government has been mulling over how best to bring justice to those affected.
But while some have expressed gratitude and relief at a decision by Rishi Sunak to overturn the wrongful convictions of former postmasters and sub-postmasters who were victims of the scandal and issue compensation, others have considered it to be tokenistic and too little, too late.
SNP group leader at Westminster Stephen Flynn (below) grilled Sunak on the matter at PMQs and pointed the finger at ex-PM Tony Blair, ex-Post Office minister Ed Davey and ex-PM David Cameron as the ones to blame for the horror victims went through.
He said: “The reality is sub-postmasters never stood a chance against our establishment, did they? This isn’t a plague on all their houses, this is a plague on this House itself.”
“I don’t think the Prime Minister quite gets it. Because injustice goes far beyond just the sub-postmasters,” Flynn added, listing other scandals including the infected blood scandal, Grenfell, Hillsborough and others.
He said: “The reality is that when the public come knocking on the doors of this here chamber seeking justice the Government only ever answers when they have no options left.”
Westminster might have partially let itself off the hook here, but it is going to take until the end of the year for this legislation to be put in place and there are so many more questions to be answered.
Japanese tech firm Fujitsu, for example, which created the Horizon software, is still being awarded government contracts worth dozens of millions and it remains to be seen how the organisation will pay for its part in the scandal.
Air strikes in Yemen
The week ended with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak authorising targeted strikes aimed at Houthi militants who had been attacking vessels in the Red Sea in a move they claimed was aimed at Israel due to its assault on Gaza.
The US said that more than 60 targets at 16 sites in Yemen had been hit in the joint action, as fears of escalation of conflict in the Middle East region grew.
There have been calls from across the political spectrum for parliament to be recalled, but Sunak has played down the importance of giving MPs a say.
Humza Yousaf has insisted MPs must be recalled to Parliament and the Tory government must produce evidence of the legal basis for strikes.
Yousaf chose to talk about the issue in his speech at the SNP’s General Election campaign launch.
He said: “Before action as serious as military intervention takes place MPs, who have been elected to represent the people, should have their say.
“The UK does not have a good track record when it comes to military intervention in the Middle East.
“That is why The House of Commons should have been recalled today, ahead of any military action being taken, to allow MPs to debate and scrutinise the UK Government’s plans for military action.”
Sunak says the strikes were "limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence" and Keir Starmer has backed the action.
