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Rishi Sunak says Post Office horizon scandal an ‘appalling miscarriage of justice’Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has announced new legislation to exonerate wrongly convicted Post Office branch managers after one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.The prime minister also said there would be a new upfront payment of £75,000 for some of those affected.Mr Sunak said a new law would be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated’’.He told the Commons: “This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history. “People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation.”Another 130 people affected by the scandal have now come forward since a new TV programme dramatising the miscarriage of justice aired, postal services minister Kevin Hollinrake said.The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) would normally look at individual convictions and send them to the Court of Appeal. But only 93 of at least 700 convictions have been overturned to date.Show latest update
1704898032£75k payments show Sunak out of touch, says victimJo Hamilton, who was wrongfully convicted in 2008 of stealing thousands of pounds from the village shop she ran in Hampshire, said the £75,000 payments showed Rishi Sunak was “out of touch”.Replying to the PM on Twitter, formerly X, she said: “You still haven’t paid to GLO group [Group Litigation Order] and the fact that you think throwing £75k at people will help, just shows how completely out of touch you are. Wouldn’t even cover the interest on what has been stolen from them by POL.”Jane Dalton10 January 2024 14:471704895211Post Office showed ‘incompetence and malevolence’, says ministerPostal minister Kevin Hollinrake said the public inquiry had already shown that Post Office displayed both “incompetence and malevolence” towards its staff in the Horizon scandal. He said: “We have seen whole lives ruined by this brutal and arbitrary exercise of power.”Rishi Sunak said earlier at PMQs that staff were victims of “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.Jane Dalton10 January 2024 14:001704894011 More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPost Office branch managers wrongly convicted in one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history are to be exonerated, Rishi Sunak has announced. After a two-decade long battle for justice hundreds of those caught up in the scandal will have their good names restored by the end of the year under the goverment’s plans. There will also be a new upfront payment of £75,000 for some of those affected, after the PM said innocent people emboiled in the fiasco would be “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.Ministers acted in the wake of widespread public outcry after ITV aired a drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, based on the scandal over Christmas.No 10 also suggested that Mr Bates could receive an honour for his campaign for justice, after former Post Office boss Paula Vennells finally bowed to intense public pressure and returned her CBE.The PM’s press secretary said: “There is a formal process for honours… but it’s hard to think of someone more deserving of being rewarded through the honours system than him.”Esther McVey, the so-called ‘common sense’ minister, said Mr Bates should receive a knighthood for exposing the Post Office accounting scandal “as soon as possible”.It began when Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear as though money was missing from outlets. Subpostmasters were forced to pay back many thousands of pounds, while hundreds were convicted based on the faults. Sunak promised extra £75,000 upfront payments Despite warnings from subpostmasters, the Post Office was prosecuting those caught up in the scandal as recently as 2015.Mr Sunak said they were victims of “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.He MPs: “We will introduce new primary legislation to ensure that those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated and compensated.”Downing Street insisted Fujitsu would be held to account if it is found guilty of wrongdoing by an independent inquiry. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We strongly believe that individuals, that businesses, will be held to account for one of the biggest miscarriages of justice this country has ever seen.”We will not resile from that. But it is right that we allow an independent inquiry to get the facts, to set them out, and then we can act.”Postal minister Kevin Hollinrake said the whole country had been united by the ITV drama starrring Toby Jones.“We’ve all been moved by the stories of postmasters who have been unjustly convicted, and the terrible effects over a period of two decades on their finances, their health and their relationships,” he told MPs.The postal affairs minister said the public inquiry into the scandal has already shown “not only incompetence, but malevolence in many of their actions”.And he said while the government “recognises the importance of an independent court system and judiciary”, the government was prepared to take “unprecedented action” to overturn hundreds of convictions.He said doing so would create a risk of an “unknown number of people” who have genuinely stolen from their Post Office branches being exonerated.Ministers plans to bring forward new legislation “within weeks” which would overturn the conviction of all those convicted during the scandal in England and Wales.To minimise the risk of dishonest postmasters being compensated alongside wrongly convicted postmasters, Mr Hollinrake said they would be asked to sign a statement swearing they did not commit the crimes they were accused of.Anybody who wrongly signs the document will put themself at risk of prosecution for fraud, he said.Senior Tory MP David Davis, who has campaigned for years for justice for postmasters, said it “looks as though the government has responded correctly”.And, while welcoming the action, he urged the government to go further and require Fujitsu, which developed the faulty Horizon software, to contribute to some of the cost of compensating victims.And he called for the government to accelerate investigations into those responsible so that those who “are really guilty” in the scandal can be convicted.But Jo Hamilton, who was wrongfully convicted in 2008 of stealing thousands of pounds from the village shop she ran in Hampshire, said the £75,000 payments showed Mr Sunak was “out of touch”.Replying to the PM on Twitter, formerly X, she said: “You still haven’t paid to GLO group and the fact that you think throwing £75k at people will help, just shows how completely out of touch you are. Wouldn’t even cover the interest on what has been stolen from them by POL.”Shadow business minister Jonathan Reynolds told MPs it was important the government was exonerating postmasters, not pardoning them, “because a pardon does imply guilt that is then forgiven”.He added: “We stand ready to work with the government to deliver a solution that achieves the long awaited justice and compensation.”Retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams is chairing an inquiry into the Post Office scandal, considered the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British history. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBuilding HS2 between London and Birmingham alone will cost as much as £66.6bn, almost twice the original estimate for the entire project, according to Sir Jon Thompson, the executive chair of HS2 Ltd.Sir Jon admitted on Wednesday that the cost has soared from an initial estimate under Gordon Brown’s government that it would cost just £37.5bn (in 2009 prices). That was under the original plans for the project, which included connections to Leeds and Manchester that have since been scrapped.On Wednesday, Sir Jon said the estimated cost for Phase 1, from London to Birmingham, is between £49bn and £56.6bn at 2019 prices. But adjusting the range for current prices involves “adding somewhere between £8bn and £10bn”, he told a committee of MPs.Rishi Sunak used his party conference speech last year to cancel HS2 north of Birmingham Sir Jon said reasons for the cost increase include original budgets being too low, changes to the scope of the project, poor delivery and inflation. He went on: “It is the government’s long-standing policy that infrastructure estimates are only updated at spending review points, that’s my understanding of it.” (Spending reviews see the Treasury periodically looking at the efficacy of past expenditure and setting future limits).“So that’s why we’re still working to 2019 prices and the whole conversation [is] about 2019 – which is, to be frank with you, an administrative burden of some significance in the organisation.” It comes four months after The Independent first revealed there had been talks between Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to scrap the second phase of the high-speed rail project.The prime minister later confirmed that the section connecting Birmingham to Manchester would be scrapped, prompting outrage from Northern business chiefs and political leaders. Mr Sunak promised the government would reinvest £36bn from the high-speed rail project in a series of road and rail schemes across the country.Sir Jon also confirmed that HS2 trains now running between Birmingham and Manchester will be slower than trains currently being operated by Avanti on the line. Since HS2’s northern leg was scrapped, the high-speed trains running from London will continue their journey to the North, but more slowly, so they can use the existing lines. Extraordinarily, because of a lesser ability to tilt at the bends on the line, the HS2 trains will actually be slower than the Pendolinos currently running on the tracks.Plans to scrap HS2 in the North, revealed by The Independent, sparked a backlash, with critics saying it will further entrench the North-South divideSir Jon went on to tell MPs there are four reasons why the cost of HS2 is more than the initial estimate. “The cost estimate in the first place, and the budget that was set in the first place were too low in my opinion,” he said. “There have been some changes to the scope … there definitely has been some poor delivery on our point … and fourthly, there’s inflation.”Sir Jon added: “It’s worth remembering that between 2010 when prime minister Gordon Brown launched HS2 and 2019 when the current budget was set, the scope of HS2 has been changed significantly by a whole series of ministers.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch as Rishi Sunak faces Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday 10 January.Much of the discussion was around the Post Office scandal, which has dominated headlines in recent days.The government is “very close” to announcing how it will clear the names of those wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal, according to postal services minister Kevin Hollinrake.Mr Sunak came under pressure from MPs to set out how the government will exonerate hundreds of subpostmasters accused of swindling money as a result of the flawed computer system.The government says compensation has been paid to more than 2,700 claimants, but hundreds were also prosecuted over shortfalls in their branches caused by software errors.Another 130 people have come forward after an ITV show dramatised what has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history.The Government is considering emergency legislation to overturn all convictions but there are concerns that it could be seen to be interfering with the independent courts process by quashing them “en bloc”, Mr Hollinrake said. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak faces a new threat over his flagship Rwanda bill, with around 30 right-wing Tory rebels planning to back amendments aimed at toughening up the legislation.The PM is under pressure from both sides of his party over the controversial legislation – aimed at overcoming the Supreme Court’s objections to the deportation flights plan.Led by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, hardliners have tabled amendments designed to tackle last-minute injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights.Mr Jenrick said: “If we don’t fix this bill the country will be consigned to more illegal crossings, more farcical migrant hotels and billions more of wasted taxpayers’ money in the years to come.”Ms Braverman – supporting the changes put forward by Mr Jenrick – warned Mr Sunak that failure to toughen the bill would be “a betrayal of the British people”.Writing in the Daily Mail, she said: “As drafted, this bill will not stop the boats,” before adding that government lawyers had warned it would get “bogged down with individual legal challenges from migrants”.Mr Jenrick would not say whether he will vote against the Rwanda Bill at the crucial third reading stage if it is not amended.He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I hope that we’ll win the argument first, so we’re not looking ahead to that.”Right-wingers Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates, leaders of the New Conservatives, said that the amendments were “proportionate, consistent with our international obligations, and have respectable legal arguments behind them”.Ms Cates told Times Radio that “the biggest threat” to the Tories is “looking daft” at the general election expected later in 2024 if they had not stopped the boats.Robert Jenrick, former immigration minister, poses major threat to Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda billAs well as trying to block any role for the European court in deportation cases, Mr Jenrick and the New Conservatives are also set to table amendments aimed at tightening the grounds on which illegal migrants can bring individual claims.At least nine former cabinet ministers – including former PM Liz Truss, former home secretary Suella Braverman, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg – are understood to be ready to back the four amendments.It would take just 29 Tory MPs to overturn Mr Sunak’s 56-seat parliamentary majority and defeat the government – if enough right-wingers are angry about their amendments being ignored by the government.More than 20 Conservatives abstained at the initial reading before Christmas, but some threatened to vote against unless Mr Sunak agrees to changes. And some big names who did not abstain are ready to back the amendments set to be tabled next week.“This is the third piece of legislation in three years, it’s three strikes or you’re out, we’ve got to get this right,” Mr Jenrick told the Today programme. The right-winger claimed that the amendments were still in line with international law – though he argued that “vital national interests supersede very contested notions of international law”.Sunak said his Rwanda bill will help him deliver his ‘stop the boats’ pledgeCommons Leader Penny Mordaunt on Tuesday announced the bill’s committee stage will take place next week, on 16 and 17 January.Former deputy prime minister Damian Green, leader of the ‘One Nation’ group of Tory moderates, said on Tuesday that Mr Sunak had assured him the bill would not be strengthened.“The prime minister’s looked me in the eye and said that he doesn’t want to go any further” and potentially break international law by ignoring its human rights obligations, he told the New Statesman.Mr Sunak won a key Commons vote on his emergency draft law in December despite speculation about a major rebellion by Tory MPs. But it faces further dissent during the upcoming parliamentary stages and heavy scrutiny in the Lords.The Tory leader has said he would welcome “bright ideas” on how to improve the bill – but has previously insisted it strikes the right balance with only an “inch” between his rescue plan and more radical measures that would risk Rwanda pulling out of the scheme.The legislation seeks to enable parliament to deem Rwanda “safe” generally, but still makes limited allowances for personal claims against being sent to the east African nation under a clause disliked by Conservative hardliners.Meanwhile, Labour was defeated in its bid to force the government to release documents relating to the scheme. MPs voted 304 to 228, majority 76, to reject the proposal.The opposition motion asked for any documents that show the cost of relocating each individual asylum seeker to Rwanda as well as a list of all payments made or scheduled to be made to Rwanda’s government.It also asked for the government’s internal breakdown of the more than 35,000 asylum decisions made last year and an unredacted copy of the confidential memorandum of understanding ministers reached with the East African country. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailTwo British nationals are being held hostage by Hamas, David Cameron confirmed in his first full questioning by MPs since returning to government late last year. The foreign secretary also said he had concerns that Israel may have acted in breach of international law in the Middle East conflict, but that it was not his job to make a “legal adjudication” about the country’s actions.During a tense exchange with SNP MP Brendan O’Hara, Lord Cameron said he had seen information in respect of the crisis that is “deeply concerning” but would not say whether he had received legal advice suggesting that laws had been breached.The former prime minister told the Commons foreign affairs select committee: “If you’re asking me am I worried that Israel has taken action that might be in breach of international law, because this particular premises has been bombed or whatever – yes, of course I’m worried about that, and that’s why I consult the Foreign Office lawyers when giving this advice on arms exports.”Lord Cameron also called on Israel to restore the water supply in Gaza, and confirmed that the two hostages were still being held along with others who are “very connected to Britain”.He said the government is doing “everything we can” to relieve suffering. An estimated 240 people were taken prisoner in Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October attacks against Israel. Some 105 were released during a ceasefire in November.Pressed on whether it is a breach of international law to turn water off in an occupied territory, Lord Cameron refused to answer. His permanent under secretary in the Foreign Office, Sir Philip Robert Barton, said it is a breach of international law.Foreign secretary David Cameron confirmed the number of British hostages still being held in Gaza Tory chair of the committee Alicia Kearns pressed Lord Cameron on whether he had received any advice saying that Israel is in breach of international law. “I can’t recall every single piece of paper put in front of me,” he said.But, in a bid for caution on the part of the Israeli government, he added that he “would have differences” with how Israel has responded to the Hamas attacks on 7 October.More than 22,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its attack on the territory, with the vast majority of victims being women and children, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry.Speaking after the committee hearing, Ms Kearns said that she did not think Lord Cameron had provided clear answers to MPs on the issue of Israel and international law. She told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that she believed Israel, as an occupying power in Gaza, had breached international humanitarian law.“The reality is that it is not always for courts to make determinations,” she said. “On issues such as international humanitarian law, and whether or not it has been broken or not, I made the point to him [that] he has previously made those determinations from the despatch box as prime minister.”Relatives of a man killed in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday prepare for his burial The foreign secretary also that said a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine is possible, as the conflict in Gaza rages on. “Out of a crisis should come some opportunity,” Lord Cameron said.Asked if the two-state solution, which would see Israel remain alongside an independent Palestinian state, is “remotely feasible” after the bitter war, he replied: “Yes, you’ve got to hope that it’s feasible.”Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson was asked whether the prime minister shares Lord Cameron’s concerns that Israel may be violating international law. He replied: “It’s an issue we continue to keep under review, and obviously we have made our views clear to the Israeli government at a number of levels on this.”It came as US secretary of state Antony Blinken urged Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet to maintain a path towards the creation of a Palestinian state.Mr Blinken, who toured Israel’s Arab neighbours for talks on plans for the future governance of Gaza and integration in the Middle East, said earlier that he would be discussing the “way forward” for the war during the meetings.He met one-on-one with Mr Netanyahu at Tel Aviv’s Kirya military base, and then with the war cabinet that was formed in the wake of the attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants.Antony Blinken, left, meets with Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz, second right, on TuesdayRepeating the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s right to prevent a repeat of the attacks, Mr Blinken “stressed the importance of avoiding further civilian harm and protecting civilian infrastructure in Gaza”, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.As well as trying to damp down regional tensions, Mr Blinken has been discussing plans for the future governance of Gaza, which could involve Israel’s Muslim-majority neighbours.Mr Blinken earlier met with Israel’s president Isaac Herzog and foreign minister Israel Katz. He told Mr Katz there were opportunities for regional integration and connectivity “but we have to get through this very challenging moment”.In the meeting with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Blinken “reiterated the need to ensure lasting, sustainable peace for Israel and the region, including by the realisation of a Palestinian state”, Mr Miller said.Mr Blinken was also set to meet with families of hostages taken by Hamas, and discuss the “relentless efforts” to bring them back.Several dozen protesters gathered outside the hotel where Mr Blinken was having meetings and called for a ceasefire to secure the release of hostages. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch as Labour MPs question the government on the costs of its Rwanda plan during an Opposition Day Debate on Tuesday, 9 January.The debate came as Rishi Sunak faces a showdown with MPs over the legislation when it returns to the Commons next week.Penny Mordaunt has announced that the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill’s committee stage will take place on 16 and 17 January.The legislation is aimed at overcoming the Supreme Court’s objections to the stalled plan to deport some migrants to the African country.It seeks to enable Parliament to deem Rwanda “safe” generally but makes limited allowances for personal claims against being sent there.Critics of the bill on the right want the controversial legislation to be tightened, while more centrist Tories have said they could oppose the bill if it risks breaching international law.Mr Sunak was forced to defend the plan after leaked documents suggested he held significant doubts about the controversial scheme and argued for it to be scaled back. More