Post Office scandal live: I’m victim of smear campaign says sacked chair as he accuses CEO of lying

The Post Office expressing a view on the overturning the fraud convictions of branch managers is “quite inappropriate”, a leading campaigner has said.

Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom also said it was “quite wrong” for the company to have a role in the compensation process for wronged subpostmasters.

The Tory former MP, who had long championed the issue and is a member of the Horizon compensation advisory board, made his comments after the Post Office told the Government it would be bound to oppose appeals in more than half the cases it had prosecuted.

A law aimed at exonerating subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal is expected to be brought forward “as soon as possible next month”, according to ministers, with the hope that all convictions will be “overturned by July”.

Giving evidence to MPs on Tuesday, Post Office chief executive officer Nick Read said: “We are making no value judgments here.

“We want people to get through this process and if mass exoneration is the right thing, then let’s make sure we get the right legislation in place to deliver mass exoneration.”

But speaking in Parliament, Lord Arbuthnot said: “The Post Office itself is under investigation by the police.

“Is it not quite inappropriate for the Post Office to express any view at all as to the correctness of overturning convictions and also quite wrong for the Post Office to have any position or play any part in the compensation process itself?”

After his conversation on LBC with James O’Brien, Cllr Bret Rosehill said: “I called LBC in my personal capacity to express my personal opinions on a current topic.

“My concern with Lee’s comments are that we are moving the dial away from discussing the threat to the Jewish population and entwining the conversation with Islamophobia.”

“Antisemitism is a separate issue which, as a percentage hate crimes per capita by religion, is in a league of its own at the moment.”

He added: “During the conversation, James asked which Labour MPs have expressed antisemitism in the same way as Lee Andersen had with islamophobia. I highlighted Jeremy Corbyn and Dawn Butler with the latter refusing to sign the Board of Deputies’ ten pledges to tackle antisemitism. In retrospect, having felt as though I was backed in a corner by James O’Brien, I was wrong in my views of Dawn Butler and I would like to sincerely apologise to her.

The world is getting tougher and tougher and I hoped I could have a sensible discussion on LBC however it sadly didn’t turn out that way.

Sacked border watchdog David Neal told MPs he was fired “for doing my job” and hit out at the “shocking” way the Home Office terminated his role.

He was sacked as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration earlier this month after losing the confidence of Home Secretary James Cleverly amid claims he breached the terms of his appointment.

The former inspector had become embroiled in a row with the Home Office about concerns he was raising over security checks at airports.

Mr Neal told the Commons Home Affairs Committee: “I’ve been sacked for doing my job.

“I think I’ve been sacked for doing what the law asks of me and I’ve breached, I’ve fallen down over a clause in my employment contract, which I think is a crying shame.”

His tenure as the independent borders watchdog was due to end on March 21 and he claimed No 10 had blocked his reappointment before he was ultimately fired.

The Ashfield MP has been suspended from the Conservative party following his comments on GB News

Mr Anderson, who is paid £100,000 a year to be host on the TV channel, said on Friday: “I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan and they’ve got control of London, and they’ve got control of Starmer as well.”

Once a Labour safe-seat, Rochdale is facing a chaotic byelection this week where the party isn’t represented at all, writes Zoe Grunewald:

Former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton has said that he is a victim of a “smear campaign” after a fallout with Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch.

Henry Staunton made the allegation at a hearing to discuss compensation payments to sub-postmasters at the centre of the Horizon scandal.

Alan Bates, the inspiration behind the ITV drama, told MPs the government needed to “get on and pay people”.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said. “This has been going on for years, as you well know, and I can’t see any end to it.”

Mr Staunton, who was sacked as Post Office chair said that compensation process had slowed right down until Mr Bates vs The Post Office was aired in January.

“We all know that things were moving far too slowly … and the reason why people have latched onto what I said in the Sunday Times was that finally someone was being honest about how deep seated the problems were and why nothing was being done,” he told MPs on the Business and Trade Committee.

“I still think that more could be done, at least to make compensation more generous, and the process of getting justice less bureaucratic.

“But I will at least have achieved something if the sunlight of disinfectant, which the Secretary of State so approves of, means that Government now lives up to its promises.

“What the public wants to know is why was everything so slow? … And why does everything remain so slow? I’ve spoken up on matters of genuine public concern, have been fired, and am now subject to a smear campaign.”

Rishi Sunak has rejected a suggestion for MPs to speak and vote from their constituencies because of concerns about security at Westminster.

Veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman had suggested a return to Covid-era remote working could be needed to ensure the protection of politicians in the face of threats and intimidation.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle broke with precedent over the selection of a Labour amendment to an SNP motion because he had concerns about the intimidation suffered by some parliamentarians – but the backlash to his actions has left his own position in jeopardy.

“One of the things that I think could come out of a Speaker’s Conference is an agreement that actually we could go back to hybrid again, which is that sometimes MPs could speak in the Chamber, sometimes they could speak from their constituency,” Harman told LBC Radio.

But a No 10 spokeswoman said the Prime Minister would resist any change that could “stifle” the role of Parliament.

The spokeswoman said: “He believes that Parliament should remain the place where MPs express their views and have debate.

“That’s fundamental to our democracy and he doesn’t want to see that change.”

Giving evidence to parliament’s business and trade select committee, Mr Bates said:

“My personal view about Post Office is it’s a dead duck and it has been for years, and it’s going to be a moneypit for the taxpayer in the years to come.

He added: “You should sell it to someone like Amazon for £1, get really good contracts for all the serving sub-postmasters and within a few years you’ll have one of the best networks around Britain.”

James Cleverly has said the UK’s goodwill towards migrants “is not a bottomless font” as he argued wealthy nations must help developing ones avoid “haemorrhaging” people.

In a major speech in New York on Tuesday, the Home Secretary said Western powers must help would-be migrants to “stay and thrive at home” in order to stem the international migration crisis.

Answering questions afterwards, he said there could be “large-scale” migration to Europe from Africa, the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia as they become richer and people who were previously too poor to consider relocation acquire the financial means to do so.

“As these parts of the world become wealthier, there may be an initial but potentially temporary pressure for large-scale human movement to the high-GDP-per-capita countries,” the Cabinet minister said.

He argued that Western powers should support those countries in ensuring they are “safe and prosperous” to prevent an outflow of people and a “devastating” talent drain.

“If you’re a country with great aspiration for your future, but what you’re synonymous for is just people haemorrhaging from your country, that contradicts your message,” he said.

Cleverly’s father is British and worked as a surveyor and his mother worked as a midwife and is from Sierra Leone.