Petition to strip ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells of CBE hits one million
More than one million people have signed a petition demanding ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells be stripped of her CBE.
The figure has quickly risen after ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office shone a light on the IT scandal that led to hundreds of workers' lives being ruined and some wrongfully convicted.
Rishi Sunak confirmed the Government is looking at exonerating all postmasters involved in the Horizon scandal as he was confronted by one of the victims today. The PM was challenged on how compensation has been paid at a “snail’s pace” as he appeared on the BBC ’s Laura Kuenssberg programme. Susan Knight, a former sub-postmistress, told him: “Please stop making us still feel like victims.”
More than 700 Post Office branch managers were handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Fujitsu accounting software called Horizon made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets. Mr Sunak said ministers were considering the option of exonerating all those involved.
Asked if the Government would remove the Post Office's ability to investigate and prosecute, he said: "The Justice Secretary is looking at the things that you've described, it wouldn't be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there's legal complexity in all of those things but he is looking at exactly those areas."
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Mr Sunak added: "Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice… The Government has paid out about £150 million to thousands of people already. Of course we want to get the money to the people as quickly as possible."
Lee Castleton, who was portrayed by Will Mellor in the ITV drama about the scandal, said the victims are "traumatised" and it is "like a war" to try and get compensation. Mr Castleton went bankrupt after he was pursued through the courts and made to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds.
"The victims are traumatised. It has been a long time of 25 years and £135million has been paid to some of the victims, but we have had £150million-plus paid to lawyers. These lawyers are putting lots of pressure and it is difficult. The schemes are difficult," he said. "We are just normal run-of-the-mill people. We have legal people with us but it is so difficult and it is like a war. Why would anybody put the Post Office and DBT (the Department for Business and Trade) in charge of recompensing the victims?"
Ms Vennells was the CEO of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019 and was awarded a CBE in 2019 for services to the organisation.
Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, said last week that Ms Vennells should hand the honour back.“If I was Paula Vennells, I would say, well basically, the buck stops with me and I will hand back my CBE,” he told Times Radio. “I think that will be the right thing for Paula Vennells to do.”
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