Starmer presses Sunak over Post Office chairman row
Rishi Sunak refuses to repeat allegations made by Kemi Badenoch earlier this week, that ex-Post Office boss Henry Staunton was lying. During Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour Leader said: “Would the Prime Minister be prepared personally to repeat the allegations made by his Business Secretary, that the former chair of the Post Office is lying when he says he was told to go slow on compensation for postmasters and limp to the next election?” The Prime Minister responded by saying the government has taken "unprecedented steps" to support victims of the scandal. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Would the Prime Minister be prepared personally to repeat the allegation made by his business secretary
00:06 that the former chair of the post office is lying when he says he was told to go slow
00:15 on compensation for postmasters and limp to the next election?
00:20 As the business secretary said on Monday, she asked Henry Staunton to step down after serious concerns were raised.
00:27 She set out the reasons for this and the full background in the House earlier this week.
00:32 But importantly, we have also taken unprecedented steps to ensure that victims of the Horizon scandal
00:38 do receive compensation as swiftly as possible and in full.
00:42 Making sure that victims receive justice and compensation remains our number one priority.
00:48 On Monday, the business secretary also confirmed categorically that the post office was,
00:55 and I'll quote this in fairness to the Prime Minister,
00:58 "at no point told to delay compensation payments by either an official or a minister from any government department"
01:07 and at no point was it suggested that a delay would be of benefit to the Treasury.
01:13 So that's Monday. A note released by the former post office chair this morning appears to directly contradict that.
01:22 I appreciate that the business secretary has put the Prime Minister in a tricky position,
01:26 but will he commit to investigating this matter properly,
01:31 including whether that categorical statement was correct and why,
01:37 rather than taking those accusations seriously, she accused a whistleblower of lying?
01:43 It is worth bearing in mind that, as the business secretary said on Monday,
01:47 she asked Henry Staunton to step down after serious concerns were raised.
01:52 But this is, on a matter of substance, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history.