UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailIT giant Fujitsu should repay the “fortune” spent on the Post Office scandal if it is found culpable, justice secretary Alex Chalk has said.No 10 said on Thursday that Rishi Sunak’s government “fully intends” to make Fujitsu foot the bill for the scandal if the IT giant behind the faulty Horizon software is found culpable.And Mr Chalk said the government will want to “secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer” if the public inquiry delivers a damning verdict on the firm.It comes as a Post Office investigator described as having a “heavy footprint” is due to give evidence for the inquiry’s first hearing of the year on Thursday.Mr Sunak announced that hundreds of subpostmasters in England and Wales would have their names cleared by the end of the year under blanket legislation to be introduced within weeks.And Mr Chalk suggested that Fujitsu will have to foot a large part of the compensation bill if the inquiry finds the “scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine”.The prime minister is facing calls to go further and bar Fujitsu from securing government contracts and pursue the firm for payments.Mr Chalk said the government would wait for the conclusions of the inquiry, chaired by retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, before it decides what action to take against the company.Justice secretary Alex Chalk has offered warning to Fujitsu “But bluntly, if the scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine, then I simply would want to secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer,” the cabinet minister told ITV’s Peston.“It’s absolutely right that there should be justice across the piece – yes for the subpostmasters which we’re talking about today – but frankly also for the taxpayer. This has cost and will cost a fortune.”If Fujitsu is found to be at fault, it “should face the consequences”, Mr Chalk added, in a sign ministers could launch legal action against the Japanese company.Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake also told BBC Newsnight that it would be “only right” for Fujitsu to contribute to compensation bill if the inquiry finds it bears a lot of the responsibility for the scandal.Mr Sunak’s spokesman said on Thursday that the government did not want to “cut across” the public inquiry, but added: “We fully intend, should culpability be found with individuals or businesses, to hold them to account.”Post Office showed ‘incompetence and malevolence’, says ministerHundreds of Post Office branch managers were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the tech giant’s flawed Horizon accounting system.Those whose convictions are quashed are eligible for a £600,000 compensation payment, or potentially more if they go through a process of having their claim individually assessed.There will also be a new upfront payment of £75,000 to those not convicted by affected by the scandal – including those who lost money by paying the sums allegedly stolen out of their own pocket. Ministers are setting aside up to £1bn for compensation. Mr Hollinrake explained in the Commons that the victims would be eligible for compensation simply by signing a declaration that they hadn’t committed any crime.Alan Bates – the former subpostmaster on whom the recent ITV series centre – said it was “about time” for the move to exonerate Post Office staff – but warned that “the devil is in the detail” when it comes to the government’s legislation.Toby Jones played former subpostmaster Alan Bates in the ITV drama But asked if he would be celebrating the victory, the 69-year-old told The Times “you must be joking” as he and many others are yet to receive final compensation.Mr Bates told The Mirror: “£75,000 is an alternative to having your case independently assessed, so for the smaller cases, it will probably suffice. But for many cases, it is not enough.”It emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecuted three Post Office cases while Sir Keir Starmer was in charge. The Labour leader told reporters: “I wasn’t aware of any of them.”Ministers have acknowledged the radical plan of a law to enforce mass exoneration could result in some subpostmasters who did commit crimes being wrongly cleared – but insisted the process was the most effective way of dealing with the vast majority who were victims.Lord Ken MacDonald, the former director of Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said it amounted to “parliament seizing from the courts and from the judges … I hope it doesn’t come back to bite us.”Fujitsu’s continued involvement in major IT schemes has raised concerns. Ministers tried to prevent the firm getting more official work but this proved “impossible” despite its “woeful” performance, a Tory peer revealed on Wednesday.Lord Maude, who served as Cabinet Office minister under David Cameron, said procurement rules thwarted ministers’ efforts. He said if Fujitsu had “any sense of honour” it would swiftly make a significant payment towards the compensation packages.The public inquiry, whose first hearing of the year on Thursday will feature Post Office investigator Stephen Bradshaw, is set to keep the scandal in the headlines.Mr Bradshaw has been described as having a “heavy footprint” in the scandal after being involved in the criminal investigation of nine subpostmasters. More

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insightLabour is on course for a 50-100 seat majority, a former cabinet secretary and Blair adviser has predicted, as Brexit voters turn to Sir Keir Starmer.Voters in Brexit-backing coastal seats have swung back behind the Labour Party after supporting Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in 2019, new polling shows.Lord O’Donnell, who ran the civil service under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, said Labour’s majority after this year’s election could be up to 100 seats.“If you look at the evidence the polling says there’s been a consistent Labour lead of 18 points, roughly, for a long time now,” he told the BBC’s Today podcast.Keir Starmer is on course for a majority of up to 100 seats, Lord O’Donnell has said “I’m in the 50-100 seat majority if I had to put on it,” he added.But Lord O’Donnell urged his civil service colleagues to “prepare for all possible outcomes”.“Do not assume… one of the reasons I think the prime minister is deciding to wait is that things could change,” he said.His comments came as a poll by think tank Labour Together showed that coastal voters back Labour over the Tories by a margin of 44 per cent to 24 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats on 11 per cent.Coastal communities, those within five miles of the sea, have disproportionately backed winning causes over the last 40 years, with three-quarters supporting Margaret Thatcher in 1987 before Tony Blair doubled Labour’s number of seaside seats in 1997.Most coastal seats supported Brexit and around 70 per cent voted Conservative in 2019.That position now appears to have reversed again, with Labour enjoying a net favourability rating of 7 per cent among coastal voters, while the Tories have slumped to minus 32 per cent.The results of the survey represent a boost for Labour in an area recently described by centre-right think tank Onward as “the forgotten battleground that could decide the next election”.Josh Williams, director of strategy at Labour Together, said: “Where the coast goes, the country follows.”Take a look at the polls now and the story is clear: the tide is turning, and the Tories are at risk of being swept away.”Addressing the general election, expected in October this year, Lord O’Donnell said: “Three factors that are difficult are, how much tactical voting will there be? I think quite a lot and that helps Labour. How much will Reform take away from the Tories? That helps Labour. And Scotland – clearly the collapse of the SNP helps Labour.”Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are trailing Labour by around 20 points in the polls His intervention is the latest dire warning for the Tories, with Rishi Sunak’s party trailing Labour by around 20 points in the polls.Lord O’Donnell also took a swipe at the UK’s elections, saying First Past the Post voting system means Britain is “not a very good example of democracy”.“You can get a lot of votes and not get anywhere… if you have a more proportional system he [Nigel Farage] who got his four million votes [in 2015] would deliver him something more [than one constituency],” he added. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPost Office investigators were handed cash bonuses for every conviction of a branch manager during the Horizon IT scandal.Former staff have told the public inquiry that bonus incentives played a key role in one of Britain’s worst-ever miscarriages of justice.Alan Bates – the campaigning subpostmaster who featured in the ITV drama on the scandal – condemned the “horrendous” culture of financial rewards.It follows Rishi Sunak’s announcement that hundreds of subpostmasters would have convictions overturned under blanket legislation to be introduced within weeks.And justice secretary Alex Chalk has said IT giant Fujitsu should repay the “fortune” spent on compensation if it is found culpable at the public inquiry.At least 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the tech giant’s flawed Horizon accounting system.It has emerged that Gary Thomas – a former member of the Post Office security team between 2000 and 2012 – told the public inquiry there were “bonus objectives” for investigators.Alan Bates was played by Toby Jones in recent ITV drama Asked if influenced his actions, he said: “I’d probably be lying if I said no because … it was part of the business, the culture of the business of recoveries or even under the terms of a postmaster’s contract with the contracts manager.”Another former Post Office investigator Dave Posnett told the inquiry last month that bonuses were partly based on the sums of money recovered once subpostmasters had been convicted.Mr Posnett said “everyone within the security team was on a bonus, depending on their own objectives”.Mr Bates told The Telegraph the Post Office has a bonus culture “running right through it”. The campaigner added: “It’s pretty appalling. It’s horrendous. There seems to be a culture in it and that’s got to be called into question at some point.”Meanwhile, having another a legislative plan to overturn convictions en mass, Mr Sunak is now facing calls to go further and bar Fujitsu from securing government contracts and pursue the firm for payments.Sunak announced plan for legislation to offer mass exonerationThe justice secretary has said that Mr Sunak’s government will want to “secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer” if the inquiry delivers a damning verdict on the firm behind the faulty software.“If the scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine, then I simply would want to secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer,” Mr Chalk told ITV’s Peston.Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake also told BBC Newsnight that it would be “only right” for Fujitsu to contribute to compensation bill if the inquiry finds it bears a lot of the responsibility for the scandal.Ministers have acknowledged the radical plan of a law to enforce mass exoneration could result in some subpostmasters who did commit crimes being wrongly cleared – but insisted the process was the most effective way of dealing with the vast majority who were victims.There will also be a new upfront payment of £75,000 to many of the 700 or so affected, as Mr Sunak said innocent people embroiled in the fiasco would be “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.Mr Bates – the former subpostmaster on whom the recent ITV series centre – said it was “about time” for the move to exonerate Post Office staff – but warned that “the devil is in the detail” when it comes to the government’s legislation.Justice secretary Alex Chalk said Fujitsu should pay towards the Post Office compensationIt has also emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecuted three Post Office cases while Sir Keir Starmer was in charge. The Labour leader told reporters: “I wasn’t aware of any of them.”The public inquiry, whose first hearing of the year on Thursday will feature Post Office investigator Stephen Bradshaw, is set to keep the scandal in the headlines.Mr Bradshaw has been described as having a “heavy footprint” in the scandal after being involved in the criminal investigation of nine subpostmasters.He was involved in the criminal investigation of nine subpostmasters, including Lisa Brennan, a former counter clerk at a post office in Huyton, near Liverpool, who was falsely accused of stealing £3,000 in 2003.Mr Bradshaw has also been accused by fellow Merseyside subpostmistress Rita Threlfall of asking her for the colour of her eyes and what jewellery she wore before saying: “Good, so we’ve got a description of you for when they come” during her interview under caution in August 2010. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Liberal Democrats have asked media regulator Ofcom to investigate GB News over its criticism of Sir Ed Davey over the Post Office scandal.The channel’s presenters – including Nigel Farage and for Tory cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg – have launched a series of attacks on the Lib Dem leader for his role as former postal minister.The Lib Dems have alleged that the broadcaster has breached accuracy and impartiality rules with its “appalling” commentary on Sir Ed. In a letter to Ofcom Melanie Dawes, the party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper highlighted a series of claims made by Mr Farage about the Lib Dem leader.“I was appalled to watch Nigel Farage, the chairman of Reform, launch a fictitious monologue about leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, with a number of factual inaccuracies,” Ms Cooper said.She added: “The Liberal Democrats were offered no right of reply. This therefore breaches both the accuracy and impartiality elements of the Ofcom code.”Sir Ed Davey has been under pressure over his role as postal minister between 2010 and 2012, after it emerged that he initially refused to meet campaigning subpostmaster Alan Bates.Sir Ed Davey has been under pressure over his former role as postal minister Mr Farage said on his Tuesday programme that he does not believe that Sir Ed could survive the scandal – and accused him of acting “shamefully” as a minister.The Lib Dems also flagged programmes involving former Conservative cabinet minister Mr Rees-Mogg – attacking them for failing to mention the Tory party’s role in the Horizon scandal.Ms Cooper highlighted the Conservative government oversaw the CBE given to former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells, and had been responsible for the slow process of compensating victims.She said Mr Rees-Mogg had taken aim “political leaders from other parties about the scandal, whilst not mentioning his own party’s role in this devastating miscarriage of justice”.The senior Lib Dem added: “Conservative MPs hired by GB News have been entirely silent on these matters, resulting in a wholly one-sided and partisan portrayal of a major political controversy.”“Farage, Rees-Mogg and [Lee] Anderson cannot be trusted to report on this issue fairly and accurately, as your code requires,” she wrote. “We urgently need an investigation into whether GB News is breaching your impartiality and accuracy rules.”Liberal Democrat MPs have been sent a letter to send to any constituents asking about Sir Ed’s role in the Horizon scandal, according to the BBC.It tells the party’s politicians that if asked about his role, they should explain that “the scandal took place over many years from 1999, during which time different governments and ministers from all parties were in post”.Sir Ed has said he “deeply regrets not realising that the Post Office was lying to him” and accused bosses of unleashing a “conspiracy of lies” when he asked questions about Horizon.Meanwhile, some politicians in Sir Ed’s Kingston and Surbiton seat are said to be in talks about putting Yvonne Tracey – a deputy manager of a Post Office branch – up against him at the next general election.In a message of social media, the local independent councillor said: “Come the next election, it’s incumbent on those seeking justice for our sub-postmasters to stand against Ed.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer has denied his plan to bring in supervised toothbrushing of young children in schools amounts to nanny state politics.The Labour leader said the Conservatives should be ashamed of the decline in some health outcomes for British children – suggesting that it amounted to criminal neglect.Defending Labour plans to introduce supervised toothbrushing at free breakfast clubs, Sir Keir said tooth decay should be consigned to the history books.He also vowed to boost dental services to ensure children can get appointments when they need one – part of plan to create the “healthiest and happiest generation of children” ever in Britain.But the announcement drew criticism from teaching unions, with leaders saying it is “not the role of teachers to be making sure children brush their teeth each day”.Asked by reporters if supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds was nanny state politics, Sir Keir said: “We want to encourage good parenting, but I don’t think we can just turn our back on it.”He added: “When I first read the statistic that for six to 10-year-olds that the biggest admission to hospitals I was really struck. That is shocking – and I don’t think you can simply say, ‘That’s none of our business.’”Starmer said he was ‘up for the fight’ on whether support for children was nanny state politicsSir Keir said that both parents and the government had a role in the wellbeing of children. “It’s saying there is a role for the state in this,” he said – adding that he was “up for that fight”.Labour analysis of OECD data shows that British children are falling behind their international counterparts when it comes to poor health outcomes.Children in the UK today are smaller than Haitian children, haver greater obesity levels than the French, and are less happy than the Turks, the figures show.Sir Keir told reporters he was “very concerned” that the height of children had fallen behind some many other countries, adding: “That is primarily down to malnutrition … it’s something the government ought to be ashamed of.”The Labour leader added: “Frankly if this was a parent who had treated children this badly – as badly as the UK government – they would probably be charged with neglect.”Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said they were relieved that supervising toothbrushing won’t be a part of the school day – but added: “We remain somewhat sceptical about how this will work in practice.”Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said free breakfast club provision was a positive development for many schools.But he added: “What is essential to the effective rollout of breakfast clubs and toothbrushing supervision, however, is sufficient funding and staffing levels. It is not at all clear who will administer these new drives.”Other aspects of Labour’s plan include introducing a 9pm watershed for junk food ads, banning vape adverts aimed at children, better access to mental health support, cutting waiting times for hospital care for children, and ensuring more dental appointments.Sir Keir said the child health action plan was fully costed and would be made “definitely [in] the first term of a Labour government – these are things we would seek to do pretty much straight away”.Andy Bell, chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, welcomed Labour’s proposals to “improve support for children and young people’s mental health”.And Dr Lade Smith, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the number of children struggling with their mental health has increased “significantly” in recent years. “It is positive to see commitments being made by the Labour Party to tackle this issue and reduce NHS waiting lists.”Tory public health minister Andrea Leadsom said Sir Keir “should focus on fixing his own house before criticising others”, adding: “This is the same old Labour of more spending and more taxes.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer has been dragged into the Post Office scandal after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed it had prosecuted postmasters while the Labour leader was in charge.The CPS said on Wednesday night that it prosecuted 11 cases that “involved evidence connected to Horizon” – three resulted in convictions while Sir Keir was in charge.It turns the focus of the scandal to the Labour leader, after days of outrage at former Post Office boss Paula Vennells and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey.Labour said Sir Keir was unaware of any cases being prosecuted while he was director of public prosecutions (DPP).Keir Starmer said the Post Office scandal was a ‘huge injustice’ But he has previously told Sky News that he “carries the can” for mistakes made while he was DPP. It opens the Labour leader up to questions about why he did not intervene in the cases, and attacks over his involvement in the scandal.Errors made by Horizon software, which was made by tech firm Fujitsu and used by the Post Office, led to the wrongful conviction of more than 700 people over false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015.The renewed focus on the scandal follows the recent broadcast of ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office.Addressing the scandal in parliament, Sir Keir said: “It is a huge injustice; people lost their lives, their liberty and their livelihood, and they have been waiting far too long for the truth, for justice and for compensation.” A spokesperson for the Labour leader said during his time as chief prosecutor “no cases” relating to Horizon were brought to his desk. The spokesperson said: “The scandal that’s emerged is one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history and Labour has been calling for swift exoneration and compensation for the victims. “It’s vital that all action is taken to right these wrongs. Labour’s focus is on playing our part in making sure this injustice is never repeated.” During Sir Keir’s time as DPP, the CPS handled more than 4 million cases. And while the CPS said the “vast majority” of cases against postmasters were private prosecutions, it said on Wednesday it had found “a small number” of CPS cases prosecuted based on evidence connected to Horizon.A spokesperson said: “We’ve worked extensively and identified a small number of CPS cases which involved evidence connected to Horizon.“In these cases, we have written to those defendants to disclose information so they could pursue an appeal.”It argued cases involving the CPS were taken forward in good faith based on evidence provided by the Post Office and the police.In 1999, Horizon, a defective Fujitsu IT system, began incorrectly reporting cash shortfalls at Post Office branches across the country. The accusations tore people’s lives apart, with many losing their jobs and homes.Several people took their own lives due to the stress.To this day, not a single Post Office or Fujitsu employee has been held to account over the scandal, much less faced criminal investigation. At least 60 of the victims have died before finding any justice at all.But on Wednesday Rishi Sunak announced that Post Office branch managers wrongly convicted are to be exonerated.After a decades-long fight for justice, hundreds of those caught up in the scandal will have their good names restored by the end of the year under the government’s plans. More