Today junior minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Paul Scully MP made a statement to the House of Commons regarding the Post Office and Court of Appeal Judgment. Unfortunately as we are now getting very used to, he refused to change the government direction on this scandal. No full compensation for the original group that exposed Post Office in the courts and no Statutory Inquiry. His get out excuse being that this type of inquiry would take up to three years to complete and doesn't want to see Postmasters suffer this long. A little bit rich if I do say so myself considering the majority of these people have being suffering for 2 decades, suddenly the government seems to care about speed! There were some excellent questions and statements from MP's from all sides of the house and you could visibly tell the minister was under pressure and on the ropes.
Kevan Jones MP for North West Durham told the minister he was going to end up in the long list of of 'useless ministers' unless he acted and if this wasn't so serious it would have been funny! There was a lot of anger from MP's and rightly so, this is exactly the kind of scenario where they must work cross party to get a just resolution for everyone. This is not time for political games or point scoring, only a matter of real lives and justice.
My own MP Kate Osborne of Jarrow made a very passionate statement on my behalf today which was welcomed and I thank her for the ongoing support. I got a name check from the minister Paul Scully. Now for the first time he didn't use the phrase that we had entered a full and final settlement.....is the tide starting to turn ahead of my meeting with Nick Read on Friday.....who knows!
You can see the short 1 minute clip below :-
https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/34ea0d95-ca6a-47b8-a891-ef8e8a133e16?in=13:48:36&out=13:49:58
If you would like to watch the entire exchange it is just over 50 minutes long and can be found below :-
https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/34ea0d95-ca6a-47b8-a891-ef8e8a133e16?in=13:13:56&out=14:04:58
In the meantime I have had time to read more of the Judgment handed down on Friday and there are a few more real gems in there and highly critical of Post Office with regards to disclosure and to the law.
Post Office lawyers talked about dissuading accused Postmasters of jumping on the bandwagon of attacking the Horizon system so that it wouldn't lead to others finding out. Lord Justice Holroyde revealed that the court had been presented with previously unseen material by the Post Office. (The other question and Justice Fraser must be thinking the same thing, why wasn't this all disclosed in the Civil Litigation, simple answer....Post Office had something to hide!
Lord Justice Holroyde continued 'it suggests a culture of seeking to avoid the legal obligations when fulfilment of those obligations would be inconvenient and/or costly.'
If you look at further documents released to the courts they revealed that in 2010 the Post Office's own legal counsel reported the prosecution of Seema Misra. They spoke about being able to destroy her attack on the Horizon system and hoped that this would set a 'marker to dissuade other defendants of jumping of the bandwagon of questioning Horizon.' They also spoke about that any missed conviction could bring the entire system down. Another legal case the Post Office counsel again said they had not mentioned the Misra case to the defence saying, 'they can find out for themselves.' As a prosecutor Post Office had a legal obligation to release ANY information that may help defend the defendant, they simply deliberately withheld this information. It is for this reason alone the legal counsel themselves must be fully investigated by the police for perverting the course of justice. The fact they were even talking about these things just shows to what lengths they went to protect the Post Office business. Who actioned these decisions? That is what a Statutory Inquiry can get to the bottom of.
Another line from Lord Justice Holroyde stated that 'Post Office knew there were serious issues with Horizon but consistently asserted that it was robust and reliable.' They followed this narrative for a decade and everyone outside the Postmaster community believed them, unfortunately including the courts!
On Monday we heard that Paula Vennell's has finally stepped down from her non executive roles at both Morrison's PLC and Dunelm. It was also announced that she had stepped down as a governor at a local private school. That means now she has stepped down from 6 roles within the past 12 months and no longer holds any positions in the public domain. She is beyond toxic from any business and it is hard to imagine her now being able to take on future roles. I am sure it won't bother her too much having earned over £5 million pounds whilst with the Post Office and between the 2 roles at Morrison's and Dunlem another £140,000 per year. She will have a good pension pot unlike the empty pot of all the affected Postmasters in the scandal she helped create and cover-up by not being open and transparent over the years. I am sure she won't have to scrape behind the sofa looking for spare change anytime soon. After leaving these roles she released another pathetic statement, I will let you decide for yourself what you think.
'I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 subpostmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week. I will be stepping back as minister at the Church of St Owen near Bedford, in the diocese of St Albans, calling the scandal a “distraction”. It is obvious that my involvement with the Post Office has become a distraction from the good work undertaken in the Diocese of St Albans and in the parishes I serve. I have therefore stepped back with immediate effect from regular parish ministry, and intend to focus fully on working with the ongoing government inquiry to ensure the affected Sub Postmasters and wider public get the answers they deserve.
Strange she now thinks everyone deserves answers, if she had just been forthcoming over the years during the Select Committee inquiry we would not be in this mess now and she certainly wouldn't be getting investigated for potential wrongdoing.
The Bishop of St Albans said it was 'right' that Paula Vennell's had stepped back from her role. 'As the son of a former Sub Postmaster I express my distress at the miscarriage of justice that so many Sub Postmasters have suffered.'
Eventually it has been mentioned the Forfeiture Committee will be discussing the removal of Paula Vennell's CBE. They will meet and then the Prime Minister must submit a request to the monarchy for the removal to take place. Hopefully they act sooner rather than later.
Hudgell's Solicitors who acted on behalf of a large number of the appellants confirmed on Monday that they are ready to submit a further 38 cases before the Court of Appeal and are working on a further 50. This is huge....39 overturned on Friday was the largest ever one time referral, another 38 on their way and potentially another 700+ convictions still under review. I like to remind everyone that is on top of the 2400 people that have now joined the Historical Shortfall Scheme and the original group of 555 that first took the Post Office to Court.
The one thing now that after Friday, the upcoming further cases to go before the courts and the starting of the malicious prosecution claims later this week, the media and public attention is higher than ever. We MUST use this to our advantage to force the government into action. If you haven't already share this petition as far and wide as possible, there is no cost to do so. If it asks you to donate to get the petition seen by more people and you would rather not just choose the option, NO I would rather share. The more signatures we get the more pressure we can place on the ministers and the government to act.
Also don't forget if you haven't already...journalist Nick Wallis is releasing a book on this scandal and you can pre-order it on his website below.
https://www.postofficetrial.com/2021/02/crowdfunder-2-special-incentives.html
You can either donate to his crowdfunding and include the option of the book or you can wait and order the book direct from the publisher later in the year. Just remember without Nick this story would not be where it is today! I am hoping to do another couple of stories later in the week with the Political Correspondents at the BBC and potentially a piece for the Sunday Times.
Look out for the update after the meeting with Nick Read. Wish me luck!!