Our petition demanding honour for Post Office hero Alan Bates reaches 130,000
More than 130,000 people have now signed our petition demanding that Alan Bates be honoured with a CBE or a knighthood for exposing the Post Office scandal which ruined the lives of hundreds of people.
The former postmaster, who led the decades-long fight for justice, had previously turned down an OBE as he believed it would be a "slap in the face" to the victims to accept an honour while ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells still held her CBE. But after she handed back her gong, campaigners have said he should be recognised with the same honour himself - if not a knighthood.
Honours are usually announced to mark the New Year and the Monarch's birthday, but in special circumstances, they can also be awarded at other times. Our petition reached 100,000 signatures just days after we launched it.
Sign our petition HERE to give Post Office hero Alan Bates an honour
Mr Bates at home with his partner Suzanne Sercombe
The couple took over a shop in Llandudno that included a post office counter in 1998 (ITV)We understand the Government could award him with an honour immediately without waiting for the King’s Birthday Honours in June. The CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) is the highest honour (excluding a knighthood/damehood), followed by the OBE and then MBE.
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Carol Vorderman, the presenter of the Pride of Britain Awards that recognised Alan Bates last year, said: "When I think of heroes I think of brave people who fight a Goliath for the good of all, and not themselves. Who are tenacious, who never give in. Alan Bates is all of those things. He shouldn't just get a CBE. He should be in the House of Lords getting his teeth into other matters. In Alan Bates we trust."
Tory former Cabinet minister David Jones said: "Alan Bates has obviously done a huge amount to expose what was going on at the Post Office. Personally speaking, I think that if Ms Vennells had the CBE, I think that he would easily be worth that."
Labour MP Kevan Jones, a member of the Horizon compensation advisory board, said: "Alan Bates should definitely take up his OBE, but I think he deserves an honour much higher for all his efforts."
Robin Priestley, campaigns director at 38 Degrees, said: "If anyone deserves to be offered an honour for their work, it’s a man who has fought tirelessly for justice for so many years, who has done so much to bring the Horizon scandal to public attention. The pressure of more than 1.2million people left Paula Vennells with no choice but to give up her CBE. Now, that same people power can ensure that Alan Bates is offered another chance to be honoured."
Alan has campaigned tirelessly for almost 20 years to expose the truth about the Post Office Scandal and get justice for subpostmasters whose lives it destroyed.
He and his partner Suzanne Sercombe took over a shop in Llandudno that included a post office counter in 1998, investing £65,000 in the business. By the end of 2000, after the introduction of the Post Office’s new Horizon computer system, unexplained losses appeared in his accounts.
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In 2003, his contract was terminated. His careful record-keeping proved he was not at fault, but the Post Office said by then £1,200 was unaccounted for – a sum Alan said was never there in the first place and had simply appeared as a result of a glitch in the system.
Alan's determination to get to the truth began almost immediately. Setting up a website to highlight his concerns, he also reached out to journalists to highlight the case and made contact with other subpostmasters.
He led a group of 555 postmasters in taking the Post Office to the High Court in a Group Litigation Order. In 2019, a judge ruled that the computer system contained "bugs, errors and defects", and the Post Office agreed to settle with all the claimants who joined the GLO. Alan has become a national treasure after millions watched his long and painful fight for justice portrayed in the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
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Sign our petition HERE to give Post Office hero Alan Bates an honour
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