Tory Minister blasted over 'Government give up' in TV clash with ex-postmaster
A Tory minister was accused of a "Government give up" and an "easy cop out" in a tense TV confrontation with sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal.
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake sparked anger after he said it's not right for people to "make up their minds based on a dramatisation". It comes amid growing public fury after ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office highlighted the scandal. Mr Hollinrake also faced anger over delays to compensation payments as he urged those affected to be patient and wait for the results of an inquiry.
Asked by Sally Stringer, who shelled out her own money to fight allegations against her, demanded to know whether tech firm Fujitsu would continue to get Government contracts. Mr Hollinrake said: "We don't know the history yet, you may have made a judgement already, we want to reserve judgement until the inquiry is completed and reached a conclusion."
Former postmaster Sally Stringer voiced her fury at the minister's response (BBC)Ms Stringer described it as a "classic Government give-up". The Tory minister, who said he "sympathised" with those frustrated at the slow progress, said: "I can see how some people will have made up their mind but I don't think it's right to make up their mind based on a dramatisation."
He was interrupted by Ms Stringer who told him: "I'm getting very angry with this. This is one of the worst miscarriages of justice that this country has ever seen. Fujitsu are part of it, the Post Office are part of it, and the Government pays both.
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"You own Post Office Ltd. Now, I want some answers please from ministers including you about what you intend to do about the Post Office and Fujitsu. I don't want it at the end of an inquiry... I'm asking you in an election year what you as a Government are intending to do about it and I want those answers fairly quickly.
Furious former postmasters confronted the Post Office minister (BBC)"Most of these people who have suffered on this need their compensation and they've had long enough frankly to faff around with this Government and previous Governments and you need to get it sorted soon and we need some timescales please."
Former postmaster Janet Skinner, who was wrongly jailed, demanded that the Post Office is removed from the process of putting the matter right. "Currently the Post Office are orchestrating who has a conviction overturned, they have control of compensation, they're now classified as the criminals so why do they have the power to control everything?"
Mr Hollinrake said he is "very keen" to take the Post Office out of the process. Ms Skinner said: "They've been aware of this for the past 10 years and they've done nothing." She added: "A lot of executives are getting near enough £600,000, do you think that's fair... I think it's just an easy cop out."
The Post Office minister said that decisions about sanctions would be made when the inquiry has established the facts about the scandal. Mr Hollinrake also heard of cases where people whose convictions were overturned in 2021 have still yet to receive compensation.
He appeared to blame a reluctance of people to come forward to claim compensation, stating: "We've been frustrated, when the first convictions were overturned in 2021 we thought there would be a huge wave of people coming forward.
"We hadn't anticipated some of the nervousness people might have had about reopening their case and interacting with the Post Office again."
Asked if former Post Office boss Paula Vennells - who yesterday voluntarily gave up her CBE - should give up the bonuses she received, Mr Hollinrake said: "I think we need to go through due process and we don't do this by trial by media."
All the sub-postmasters in the BBC Breakfast studio said she should do so.
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