Ex-Submit Workplace chair claims 'made up' – Badenoch – BBC Information

Through Michael RaceBusiness reporter, BBC News19 February 2024, 16:21 GMTUpdated 27 mins agoVideo caption, Ex-Submit Workplace chair ‘looking for revenge’ – BadenochThe Trade Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has stated claims by means of the previous Submit Workplace chair that he was once informed to lengthen repayment bills for sub-postmasters are “totally false”.Henry Staunton stated he was once informed to stall payouts to permit the federal government to “limp into the election”, it appears to lend a hand state budget. However Ms Badenoch accused him of spreading “a sequence of falsehoods” and offering “made up anecdotes”.Mr Staunton has stood by means of his feedback.”Mr Staunton isn’t within the addiction of resorting to fabrication or invention and made up our minds to head public out of a need to be sure that the general public had been totally acutely aware of the information surrounding the a couple of screw ups that experience ended in postmasters on this nation being badly let down,” a observation launched on his behalf stated past due on Monday.The reaction got here after Ms Badenoch made a observation to the Space of Commons during which she stated Mr Staunton’s claims had been “a blatant try to search revenge following dismissal”.”There could be no get advantages to us in anyway folks delaying repayment,” she added. “This doesn’t have any important affect on revenues in anyway – it will be a mad factor to even counsel.”She stated there was once “no proof in anyway” that Mr Staunton was once informed by means of an reliable to stall payouts, later including: “In reality if this type of factor was once stated, it’s for Mr Staunton himself to convey the proof.”In reaction, a observation for Mr Staunton stated that he stood by means of the remark “which he recorded on the time in a document observe which he emailed to himself and to colleagues and which is subsequently traceable at the Submit Workplace server”.Mr Staunton himself added: “It was once within the pursuits of the trade in addition to being honest for the postmasters that there was once quicker development on exoneration and that repayment for wrongly convicted postmasters was once extra beneficiant, however we did not see any actual motion till after the Mister Bates programme [on ITV].”We can go away it to others to come back to the realization as to why that was once the case.”The Submit Workplace informed the BBC it will no longer be “suitable for us to touch upon confidential emails that allegedly would possibly or won’t were despatched”.Between 1999 and 2015, loads of sub-postmasters and postmistresses had been wrongly prosecuted after a misguided laptop machine referred to as Horizon made it seem like cash was once lacking from their branches.Some sub-postmasters wrongfully went to jail, many had been financially ruined. Some have since died.The federal government has promised to quash convictions and pay repayment, however considerations were raised over the velocity and complexity in sufferers securing monetary redress, with simply 33 claims totally settled. Mr Staunton, who has been on forums of businesses starting from ITV to WH Smith, was once appointed as chair of the Submit Workplace in December 2022, however was once pushed aside by means of Ms Badenoch, who stated ultimate month that “new management” was once had to take on the scandal.”Early on, I used to be informed by means of a moderately senior individual to stall on spend on repayment and at the alternative of Horizon, and to limp, in citation marks – I did a document observe on it – limp into the election,” he informed the paper.”It was once no longer an anti-postmaster factor, it was once simply instantly financials. I did not ask, as a result of I stated: ‘I am having no a part of it – I am not right here to limp into the election, it is not the precise factor to do by means of postmasters’.”Mr Staunton additionally claimed that once he was once sacked, Ms Badenoch had informed him: “Anyone’s were given to take the rap.”Symbol supply, UK ParliamentImage caption, Henry Staunton stood down as Submit Workplace chairman ultimate monthThe govt has denied the claims about delaying repayment and Ms Badenoch has hit again at Mr Staunton, calling his feedback “disgraceful”.On Monday, she informed MPs the explanation she pushed aside Mr Staunton was once “as a result of there have been critical considerations about his behaviour as chair, together with the ones raised from different administrators at the board”.”Whilst he was once in publish a proper investigation was once introduced into allegations made relating to Mr Staunton’s behavior, this incorporated critical issues comparable to bullying,” she stated, including that considerations had been additionally raised about his “willingness to co-operate” with the investigation.She added it was once “so disappointing that he is selected to unfold a sequence of falsehoods, supply made up anecdotes to reporters and leak discussions held in self assurance”.In line with the bullying allegations, a spokesman for Mr Staunton stated it was once the “the primary time the lifestyles of such allegations were discussed”.”Mr Staunton isn’t acutely aware of any side of his behavior which might give upward thrust to such allegations,” a observation added. “They had been not at all raised by means of the secretary of state at any degree and not at all all through the dialog which ended in Mr Staunton’s dismissal. “Such behaviour would in the end be utterly out of personality.”Past due on Monday, a duplicate of the readout of the telephone name to brush aside Mr Staunton on 27 January was once revealed. It famous that the trade secretary had won a briefing on “the governance problems on the Submit Workplace” and that the proceedings towards Mr Staunton had been “so critical” that the federal government had to intrude.The readout didn’t include the particular phrases “anyone’s were given to take the rap”, however Mr Staunton stated he stood by means of “his characterisation of the dialog”.Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s shadow trade secretary, stated there have been now “two totally contrasting accounts, one from the previous chair of the Submit Workplace and one from the secretary of state”.”Simplest this sort of accounts can also be the reality,” he stated. “What we’d like now could be transparency and scrutiny.”Video caption, Reynolds: Religion within the govt over a sequence of scandals is “putting by means of a thread”Liam Byrne, Labour MP and the chair of the Trade and Industry Committee, informed the BBC he had approached Mr Staunton to wait a consultation subsequent week.The committee shall be listening to proof from Submit Workplace leader govt Nick Learn and Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster whose fight towards the Submit Workplace impressed the new ITV drama into the scandal and thrust it again into the highlight.

Author: OpenAI