09 January 2024 , 12:27
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Jo Hamilton has slammed Paula Vennells for accepting her CBE - as calls mount for her to have the honour stripped.
Former Post Office boss Paula was handed a CBE for her services to the postal service, but since the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office aired, calls have grown for her to be stripped of her honour. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed the government is looking at exonerating all postmasters involved in the Horizon scandal whilst he also backed calls for a probe into stripping her of the honour.
Jo Hamilton - a real life subpostmistress who was ordered to pay back thousands of pounds thanks to the faulty computer system - appeared alongside actress Monica Dolan, who plays her in the drama, on This Morning today.
Jo Hamilton and Monica Dolan on This Morning today (ITV)When hosts Josie Gibson and Craig Doyle asked about Vennells still having her CBE and how it made them both feel, Jo said: "I don’t know why she accepted it in the first place. She must have known by then - she left part of the way through the last trial - she must have known what she was doing. I just don’t understand it."
Of her own feelings towards it, Monica added: "I’d really like to find out who decided to give her a CBE in 2019 because they knew at that point that there was this huge problem. I don’t know, did someone decide to give it to her in order to dishearten the subpostmasters further? It seems an extraordinary decision to me."
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Alan Bates - the man who led the fight for justice on behalf of all the subpostmasters and subpostmistresses - recently told The Mirror: "The first thing that sprang to my mind while reading the letter was Paula Vennells still had a CBE. I felt so deeply insulted. She presided over a policy of harassing hundreds of innocent people. It’s not just that the government hasn’t asked her to return it. What’s even worse is that despite knowing the strength of feeling about it, how people have suffered and [in] some cases died on her watch – she doesn’t feel inclined to give it back."
Vennells has stood down from positions on multiple boards following the scandal. Speaking back in 2021, she said: "It is obvious that my involvement with the Post Office has become a distraction from the good work undertaken by the boards I serve. I have therefore stepped down with immediate effect from all my board positions."
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