January 9, 2024 | Posted in News
Rishi Sunak intervened in the Post Office honours row by saying he would “strongly support” a review into whether Paula Vennells should be stripped of her CBE.
The remark, delivered by the Prime Minister’s official spokesman on Monday, piles pressure on the Honours Forfeiture Committee to formally consider removing the honour.
Ms Vennells was the chief executive of the Post Office between 2012 and 2019, and a petition for her to lose her CBE has now been signed by more than one million people.
Downing Street’s statement came after The Daily Telegraph revealed that two Cabinet ministers were privately calling for Ms Vennells to lose her honour, received in 2019, over the Horizon IT scandal.
Back in 2012 Lord Cameron, then prime minister, urged the Committee to consider stripping former RBS boss Fred Goodwin of his knighthood. Within a fortnight that had taken place.
Last night Kevan Jones, the Labour MP and member of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, wrote to the Committee to urge it to look at Ms Vennells’s honour.
In a letter seen by this newspaper Mr Jones tells Sir Chris Wormald, who chairs the Committee, that Ms Vennells “presided over failings” linked to the Horizon IT scandal.
Mr Jones told The Telegraph: “She was given the honour for services to the Post Office, which for many of the campaigners is a little ironic as it ended up with some of them in jail and having their lives ruined.
“The honours should either be taken away or if she had any decency she would give it up.”
Labour’s front bench added their own pressure, with Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, saying honours removals for Post Office leaders should be considered if their evidence given to the public inquiry is found wanting.
Meanwhile. Gwyneth Hughes, the writer of ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office, questioned why Ms Vennells had accepted the CBE in the first place.
More than 700 sub-postmasters were convicted between 1999 and 2015 after Horizon, a faulty accounting system designed by Fujitsu and made by the Post Office, made it seem as though money was missing from their businesses.
Ms Vennells has previously apologised for what occurred, and said back in April 2021: “I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 sub-postmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week.”
Asked about the petition, Mr Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters: “The Prime Minister shares the public’s strength and feeling of outrage on this issue.
“He would strongly support the Forfeiture committee if it chose to review the case. You will know it is a decision for the Committee, rather than from the Government. He would strongly support it if they chose to do that.”
The Committee exists to consider cases where an individual who has been honoured is judged to have brought the honours system into disrepute.
The Horizon scandal has received political fresh attention after Mr Bates vs the Post Office, a drama telling the story of victims’ years-long campaign for justice, aired on ITV last week.
Mr Jones has written previously to the Forfeiture Committee about Ms Vennells’s honour but was told back in 2022 that the issue would only be looked at after the public inquiry ended.
He wants the issue being dealt with now. “I’m not sure what more evidence is needed to be put in the public domain that isn’t already out there,” he said.
Ms Hughes, the writer behind the ITV drama that has put the scandal back in the headlines, said: “Here is what I think is most interesting. Paula was offered and accepted her CBE at a point when it was already clear to anyone paying attention that something had gone badly wrong in the organisation she led.
“So what on earth was going on? Were the Honours people asleep at the wheel when they made the offer? Even more intriguingly, when Paula accepted it, what was she thinking? I’m wondering, was she in denial?”
Thank you for joining me for today’s politics live blog.
I will be back tomorrow morning.
Parents will be told to stop the Covid-era practice of keeping children off school with sore throats and runny noses as part of a government push to tackle soaring absenteeism.
A nationwide marketing campaign is being launched today aimed at convincing parents to ensure their children go to all classes, under the strapline “moments matter, attendance counts”.
The number of secondary school children persistently absent in England has doubled in the last decade, from 567,000 in 2010 to 894,444 in 2021.
Both the Tory Government and the Labour Party are this week outlining their differing approaches to how to bring down absenteeism as school.
You can read the full story here.
Former minister Chris Skidmore has formally submitted his resignation as an MP in protest over plans to “prioritise and politicise new oil and gas licences”, triggering a by-election in his Kingswood constituency.
Mr Skidmore announced his decision to step down on Friday last week.
The Liberal Democrats claimed Rishi Sunak was “living on another planet” after the Prime Minister urged voters to stick with the Tories at the next general election.
Responding to the comments made by Mr Sunak at a PM Connect event this morning (see the post below at 11.10), Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak is like an arsonist offering to put out a fire. This mess is the fault of Conservative Prime Ministers crashing the economy, hiking taxes and letting the NHS crumble.
“He is living on another planet. Just how out of touch is he? It’s clear now Rishi Sunak thinks everything is fine and nothing should change.
“This chaotic Conservative government has had long enough to get their act together. Enough is enough.”
The Rwanda Bill will return to the House of Commons this month, Downing Street has confirmed.
But No10 was unable to say which specific day MPs will debate the legislation.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I don’t have a specific date for you. It will be for the Leader of the House [Penny Mordaunt] to set out. But it will be later this month, I know that.”
Rishi Sunak is “confident” that the first Rwanda migrant deportation flight will take off this year.
Asked the question, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Yes. We remain confident that we will have flights in spring.”
Downing Street has rejected Sir Alok Sharma’s criticism of its plan to roll out annual licensing rounds for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea (see the post below at 08.13).
Asked if Rishi Sunak agreed that the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill amounted to “smoke and mirrors” which will “reinforce that unfortunate perception about the UK rowing back from climate action”, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “No.
“We need oil and gas for decades to come, even when we reach net zero in 2050. There is data from the independent climate change committee which shows that.
“So the Government believes it is common sense to make the most of what we can produce here rather than shipping in more fuels from foreign regimes with higher emissions.”
Rishi Sunak would “strongly support” an official review into whether former Post Office boss Paula Vennells should be stripped of her CBE in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mr Sunak would back the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking the honour.
A petition calling for the former chief executive to lose her CBE has now been signed by more than one million people.
Ms Vennells led the Post Office between 2012 to 2019 and was given a CBE at the end of her tenure.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 postmasters were prosecuted after faulty accounting software made it look like money was missing from their sites. To date, fewer than 100 convictions have been overturned.
Ms Vennells has apologised in the past for what occurred, saying back in April 2021: “I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 sub-postmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week.”
Public support for striking junior doctors has fallen, according to a new YouGov survey.
The poll, conducted between January 3-4, found that 50 per cent supported junior doctors taking strike action while 43 per cent said they opposed the walkouts.
The 50 per cent support figure was down by nine points since August last year. A six-day strike by junior doctors across England is due to come to an end tomorrow morning.
Rishi Sunak said he would welcome “bright ideas” from Conservative MPs on how to improve his Rwanda Bill.
The legislation, which the Government hopes will pave the pay for deportation flights to finally take off, is due to return to the Commons for further scrutiny in the coming weeks. Some Tory MPs have said they will vote against the Bill unless it is strengthened.
Answering questions at a PM Connect event, the Prime Minister said: “If people have bright ideas about how we can make this more effective whilst complying with our international obligations and retaining Rwanda’s participation in the scheme… then of course, I’m open to having those discussions.
“But I have worked on it for a very long time, so I’m confident that it is a good deal and it will do the job for us.”
Rishi Sunak rejected a claim that he wanted to scrap the Rwanda plan before he became PM.
A report by The Sun overnight said Mr Sunak had considered pledging to scrap the plan during last year’s Tory leadership contest.
Speaking in Accrington this morning, Mr Sunak said: “I didn’t say that I was going to scrap it. That is completely false. Of course I didn’t… at the time it came up when I was chancellor I rightly, on all of your behalf because ultimately when we spend money in government it is not my money, it is all of your money, what you need is your chancellor to ask some probing questions of something.
“That is part of their job, to scrutinise money that is being spent on your behalf and of course that is what I did.”
Mr Sunak said he was “confident” that his Rwanda Bill “will do the job” and get deportation flights off the ground.
Rishi Sunak said he wanted to see compensation for the victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal “out the door as quickly as possible”.
Asked if he would back quashing the remaining convictions, the Prime Minister said: “This is an absolutely appalling miscarriage of justice. Many of you in this room will have watched the drama and congratulations to ITV for doing a superb job on it.
“These things obviously started a very long time ago and it is right that they are looked at properly. The stories are appalling, people were treated absolutely appallingly, that is wrong, and we should do everything we can to make it right.
“I would say that over the last few years my predecessors started the process of doing that, had the inquiry, actually as chancellor I approved the compensation schemes for the first time which are now in the process of being paid out and almost £150million has been paid out to thousands of people.
“So people should know that we are on it and we want to make this right. The money has been set aside. What we are now looking at is how can we speed all of that up? I am very clear, I want to get that out the door as quickly as possible, there are legal processes that people have had to go through but the Justice Secretary today is meeting with the relevant minister to see is there more we can do to speed up some of those processes.”
Rishi Sunak defended his decision to water down some of the Government’s net zero plans.
He told the audience at a PM Connect event in Accrington: “There was a change, I did make a change but I think that was the right thing to do.”
The Prime Minister said the previous approach did not take enough account of the impact of net zero measures on families.
“I didn’t think that was right,” he said.
Mr Sunak said the UK will still meet its 2050 net zero emissions target and it will cut emissions “faster than everyone else”.
The Prime Minister was asked about the importance of investing in “forgotten towns” across the UK.
Rishi Sunak said “this is a really important point” and he believed levelling up is all about ensuring that “no matter where you grew up you should feel that your family, your children have the opportunity to succeed”.
Mr Sunak said the Government will “keep investing in your communities, they will not be forgotten”.
Rishi Sunak was asked by a member of the audience in Accrington about an apparent lack of opportunities for young people who are not academically inclined.
The Prime Minister pointed to his plans to introduce the new Advanced British Standard qualification – combining A-Levels and T-Levels – which he said would “stop this artificial divide between academic and technical routes”.
He said he wanted both educational routes to be treated “equally”.
The Government is now in a position to start cutting taxes, Rishi Sunak said as he addressed a PM Connect event in Accrington this morning.
The premier said that he had promised to “change economic gears once we had got inflation down” and that was what he done, pointing to a cut to National Insurance which took effect this month.
Looking ahead to the next general election, Mr Sunak said it was a choice between sticking with his plan which was starting to work and a Labour government which would take the UK “back to square one”.
Mr Sunak claimed Sir Keir Starmer “snipes from the sidelines” and was “more interested in political gameplaying” than solving the nation’s problems.
Rishi Sunak conceded that “we haven’t yet made a significant enough dent in the waiting list” in the NHS.
The Prime Minister said that was at least partly down to ongoing industrial action across the health service.
The pledge to reduce the NHS treatment backlog was made by Mr Sunak last January.
Rishi Sunak said delivering on his pledge to stop the boats would require there to be a deterrent and that was what the Rwanda policy would deliver.
The Prime Minister called on Sir Keir Starmer to back the Rwanda plan instead of “playing political games”.
Rishi Sunak is conducting a PM Connect event in Lancashire this morning.
He said that “we have made progress” and “we are heading in the right direction” after a difficult couple of years for the UK.
The Prime Minister said people had a choice between the Tories and a Labour Party which would take the nation in the “wrong direction”.
He also said he had “made progress” on his five priorities but admitted there is “more to do”.
Sir Keir Starmer said the Government’s plan to roll out annual licensing rounds for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea was a “waste of time”.
But the Labour leader would not commit to revoking the legislation underpinning the plan should his party win the next general election.
MPs will vote on the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill for the first time this evening (see the post below at 08.13).
Asked if a Labour government would revoke the Bill, Sir Keir told broadcasters: “This Bill that the Government is passing or trying to pass is a waste of time. It isn’t going to make any difference at all. Zero impact on energy bills.
“That is not me saying it, that is Government ministers, or ex-Government ministers. They have described it as smoke and mirrors.
“What you have got is a Government that is wasting its time trying to pass legislation to create a dividing line with the Labour Party rather than to solve the problem.”
Sir Keir Starmer said the wrongful conviction of postmasters as part of the Horizon IT scandal should be looked at “en masse”.
The Labour leader urged the Government to “move at speed on this” as ministers consider how best to help the victims.
Sir Keir told broadcasters during a visit to the East Midlands this morning: “I think the whole Post Office prosecution scandal is exactly that, a scandal, with a massive impact on human lives.
“I know one of the individuals affected who had a stroke because of the intense pressure that this was causing.
“So we have got to get ahead of this. I think there are three things now that need to be done. Compensation needs to be paid. That is already allocated for in the Treasury, they need to get on and pay that.
“I think that the prosecutions should be taken out of the hands of the Post Office and given to the Crown Prosecution Service. I used to run the CPS. We have prosecuted for other departments, we can do it here, that should be done straight away. And these convictions, the remaining convictions, need to be looked at en masse.”
Sir Keir Starmer claimed the Government’s response to flooding across the UK “wasn’t quick enough” as he called for a new task force to be set up to prevent problems.
He said ministers have “got to get ahead of this”.
Speaking during a visit to the flood-hit East Midlands this morning, the Labour leader told broadcasters: “That means earlier in the year, in the autumn, having a task force that brings together local authorities, the emergency response, local people, to ensure that the prevention work is done.
“Some of the drains which are now being cleaned could have been cleaned beforehand.
“The response wasn’t quick enough. So I just don’t think it is good enough for the Government to come after the event again and express empathy. Get ahead of this with a task force, that is what I would do.”
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said that if the UK Government wants to reach agreement over the trade border impasse with Northern Ireland, more progress is needed on key issues.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said before Christmas that talks with the DUP over the Windsor Framework had concluded.
But Sir Jeffrey said he believed the “talking is not done”.
He told the BBC: “If the Government wants to reach agreement they know there has to be progress made on a number of key areas for us, and we will continue to work at this until we get that agreement.
“As far as we are concerned the talking is not done, there are issues that need to be resolved, and we will keep pressing the Government on those issues. I will be talking to the UK Government this week and the idea that they are not willing to talk is simply not true.”
Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells “should give back” her CBE after the Horizon scandal.
“In terms of the honour that the former head of the Post Office received… well, speaking for myself personally here, I do think she should give that back,” he told TalkTV.
“It’s an insult to the sub-postmasters who suffered from what her leadership delivered that she should accept that honour.”
A petition calling for Ms Vennells to be stripped of her honour has now been signed by more than one million people.
Senior Post Office executives “absolutely need to account for their actions”, Treasury minister Bim Afolami has said amid ongoing scrutiny of the Horizon IT scandal.
He said the Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is “urgently” looking at how to accelerate the “slow wheels of justice” for those wrongly convicted.
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Afolami said: “(Senior Post Office executives) absolutely need to account for their actions because it will not just be (ex-chief executive) Paula Vennells.”
He added that it is important not to “prejudge” the situation.
Asked whether there are any concrete new measures the Government can offer to victims of the scandal, Mr Afolami said: “The head of the justice system… is urgently looking right now to see what we can do to accelerate these slow wheels of justice so that justice is served for them, and know that this Government is on their side and wants to sort it out.”
Treasury minister Bim Afolami said the Government is working “incredibly hard” to make sure that justice is done “as quickly as possible” for postmasters wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal.
“We are working incredibly hard to make sure that as quickly as possible justice is done, because I was as appalled as everybody else in the country was when I heard about this scandal,” he told LBC Radio.
Rishi Sunak said yesterday that ministers were considering options including exonerating all those unjustly convicted, and stripping the Post Office of handling the appeals process, with announcements expected this week.
Sir David Davis said there should be a mass exoneration of the victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
The former Brexit secretary said that “justice delayed is justice denied”.
Asked if he agreed with calls for a mass exoneration, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Yeah. All of the cases depend on one single lie and that is that nobody but the postmasters and postmistresses could access their computers.
“We now know that to be untrue. I see no real reason, no logical reason, why you can’t have a mass case, a mass appeal on that single basis.”
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 postmasters were prosecuted after faulty accounting software made it look like money was missing from their sites.
The wrongful prosecution of the postmasters has been described as “the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”. To date, fewer than 100 convictions have been overturned.
Sir David Davis said he believed there are now “tens of millions of people” who care about the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, with many “furious” about it.
The scandal is facing fresh scrutiny because of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
The former Brexit secretary is seeking to raise the subject in the House of Commons later today.
Asked about the prospect of the issue being raised in the Commons, Sir David told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “There is no certainty we can, it is down to the Speaker’s decision as it were, we will try. But we will get it either today or tomorrow.
“There is no doubt. This is such a big issue. There are now tens of millions of people who care about this and care a lot. Actually, they are furious about it in many cases.”
Lord Goldsmith, the former minister, has told MPs they will not be able to “sanitise their records” on climate action in the years to come if they vote for the Government’s Bill this evening on expanding North Sea drilling.
The Tory peer, who quit the frontbench in June last year as he accused Rishi Sunak of being “uninterested” in green issues, called for MPs to rebel against the Government.
He argued that “now is not the time for colleagues to be slavishly obedient to a leadership that will not be there in a matter of months”.
He tweeted:
Rishi Sunak has vowed to “continue to confront the difficult challenges” and “not take the easy way out” as Parliament returns for the first time this year.
MPs are returning to Westminster this afternoon following their Christmas break, kickstarting a year which will almost certainly include a general election.
A No10 source said: “2023 was not easy. We were dealing with the legacy of Covid, backlogs in our key public services. The consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine — the dangers of a war in the Middle East. But this Government has made progress. At the start of this year, we are pointing in the right direction.
“The choice is whether we stick with the plan that is starting to deliver the long term change our country needs or go back to square one with the Labour Party, where there is no plan, no progress, where taxes, debt and borrowing are increasing, and the country is going in the wrong direction.
“The PM is determined to continue to confront the difficult challenges: To govern in the national interest, not take the easy way out. Because that approach is starting to work and that is the approach that will bring about a brighter future for the country.”
Sir Alok Sharma claimed the Government was not serious about meeting its international commitments on tackling climate change ahead of a crunch vote in the House of Commons.
MPs will vote today for the first time on the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill which will roll out annual licensing rounds for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
Sir Alok, the former president of the Cop26 climate change summit, told the BBC: “I will not be voting for this Bill and actually as it is currently drafted this Bill is a total distraction.
“It is actually a smoke and mirrors Bill which frankly changes nothing. The North Sea Transition Authority which is the body that actually grants oil and gas licences can already grant licences when they think it is necessary and the energy department has made pretty clear that in respect of this Bill that will not change.
“But what this Bill does do is reinforce that unfortunate perception about the UK rowing back from climate action. We saw this last autumn with the chopping and changing on some policies and actually not being serious about meeting our international commitments.
“Just a few weeks ago at Cop28… the UK Government signed up to transition away from fossil fuels. This Bill is about doubling down on granting more oil and gas production licences, it is actually the opposite of what we agreed to do internationally so I won’t be supporting it.”