Unearthed memo shows Post Office boss was told don't 'rip off the band aid'
The former chairman of the Post Office was told by a senior civil servant to “hobble” into the election and not “rip off the band aid”, an unearthed memo has shown.
Henry Staunton is locked in a bitter war of words with Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch after he claimed that he’d been told to stall on compensation for postmasters including Alan Bates. Ms Badenoch accused him of not telling the truth, and No10 challenged him to produce evidence to support his claim.
Mr Staunton has now released notes he made of a meeting he had with the Business Department’s top civil servant in January last year. The memo claims Sarah Munby warned him that “politicians do not necessarily like to confront reality” and that “now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues”.
He emailed the note to himself and Post Office Chief Executive Nick Read at the time. Mr Staunton wrote that Ms Munby told him she "understood the 'huge commercial challenge' and the 'seriousness’ of the financial position". He added: "She described ‘all the options as unattractive’. However, ‘politicians do not necessarily like to confront reality’."
The note, shared with The Times, continued: “She said we needed to know that in the run-up to the election there was no appetite to ‘rip off the band aid’. ‘Now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues.’ We needed a plan to ‘hobble’ up to the election.”
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The memo does not specifically mention compensation payments to postmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal. But Mr Staunton said that compensation to postmasters and replacing the Horizon system were the two biggest areas where savings could be made. The latest development comes after Ms Badenoch told MPs there was "no evidence whatsoever" of his story and said it was "a blatant attempt to seek revenge" for losing his job.
Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said on Tuesday: "If he has evidence that he wishes to provide such a note that he refers to exists, we would encourage the Post Office to share it so that it can be looked into."
A Government source told The Times: “The long-standing issues around Post Offices finances are a matter of public record and do not include postmaster compensation, which is being fully funded by the government. Henry Staunton is either confused or deliberately mixing up the two issues.
"Even if we trust the veracity of a memo he wrote himself, and there’s not much to suggest we can, given the false accusations he made about the secretary of state in his original interview, it’s time for Henry Staunton to admit his interview on Sunday was a misrepresentation of his conversations with ministers and officials and to apologise to the government and the postmasters.”
It comes as Canada suggested Ms Badenoch had misled MPs over trade negotiations between the two countries. The Business Secretary told Parliament last month that talks were “ongoing” on how to avoid tariffs on British car exports to Canada that are due to be introduced in April.
But the Canadian High Commissioner to the UK Ralph Goodale has written to the Commons Business Committee to say they are not taking place.
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