How furious row between Badenoch and former Post Office boss unfolded

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has been pulled into a row with former Post Office boss Henry Staunton, whom she sacked last month amid the ongoing Horizon IT scandal.

Mr Staunton has made a series of claims about the Government’s handling of the compensation scheme, but Mr Badenoch has insisted that he is seeking “revenge” for his removal.

It comes after a TV drama threw fresh public scrutiny on the Horizon scandal which saw around 900 sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted of crimes including fraud and theft due to faults in the IT system.

Here is how the row between Ms Badenoch and Mr Staunton unfolded in the wake of the Horizon scandal:

Why was Henry Staunton sacked?

Henry Staunton, 75, is the former chair of the Post Office and was appointed in December 2022 but removed in January 2024 following a disagreement with the Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch.

Reports suggested that the pair had clashed over the handling of the Post Office Horizon scandal after ITV’s drama series brought fresh public attention to the issue.

The Department for Business and Trade said that they had agreed to “part ways with mutual consent” following a phone call.

In a statement, Ms Badenoch said: “The Post Office is rightfully under a heightened level of scrutiny at this time. With that in mind, I felt there was a need for new leadership, and we have parted ways with mutual consent.”

What accusations has Henry Staunton made?

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Staunton claimed that he had been instructed by senior civil servants to stall the compensation due to be paid to victims of the Horizon scandal so the Government could “limp into the election” with the lowest possible financial liability.

“Early on, I was told by a fairly senior person to stall on spend on compensation and on the replacement of Horizon, and to limp, in quotation marks – I did a file note on it – limp into the election,” he told the paper.

“It was not an anti-postmaster thing, it was just straight financials. I didn’t ask, because I said: ‘I’m having no part of it. I’m not here to limp into the election, it’s not the right thing to do by postmasters’.”

He also suggests that the Post Office was a “mess” with a “toxic” culture, and that he was advised to write to the Justice Secretary to suggest that so few Horizon-related convictions had been overturned because they were “guilty as charged”.

Mr Staunton also claimed that more than 40 investigators involved in wrongful Horizon prosecutions were still employed by the Post Office and were dubbed “the untouchables” inside the organisation.

He said he initially found out about his imminent sacking last month after he received a call from Sky News, and that in a phone call with Ms Badenoch she told him that “someone’s got to take the rap” for the managing of the Horizon scandal.

How did Kemi Badenoch respond to the accusations?

In a lengthy post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ms Badenoch said Mr Staunton’s comments were a “disgraceful misrepresentation of my conversation with him and the reasons for his dismissal”.

She claimed that she dismissed Mr Staunton due to “very serious allegations about his conduct while chair of the Post Office, including blocking an investigation into that conduct”.

“Henry Staunton had a lack of grip getting justice for postmasters. The serious concerns over his conduct were the reasons I asked him to step down,” she added.

A government spokesperson said that they “utterly” refute Mr Staunton’s claims, adding: “The Government has sped up compensation to victims and consistently encouraged postmasters to come forward with their claims.”

“To suggest any actions or conversations happened to the contrary is incorrect.”

What are the accusations against Henry Staunton?

On Monday, Ms Badenoch told MPs that former Post Office chair Mr Staunton was sacked from his role as he was being investigated over bullying allegations.

She said that concerns were also raised about his “willingness to cooperate” with the formal investigation into his conduct.

The Business Secretary also suggested that Mr Staunton’s claims were a “blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal”.

She accused him of making “completely false” accusations and said it had confirmed in her mind that “I made the correct decision in dismissing him”.

“I dismissed him because there were serious concerns about his behaviour as chair, including those raised from other directors on the board,” she continued.

“My department found significant governance issues, for example, with the recruitment of a new senior independence director to the Post Office board.”

What was the Horizon IT scandal?

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted of stealing money because of faults in an IT system called Horizon, which was developed by Fujitsu.

Many were jailed as a result of their convictions, and four took their own lives.

To date, only 95 convictions have been overturned and at least 60 those affected have died without receiving justice or compensation.

In 2017, a group of 555 sub-postmasters took legal action against the Post Office and eventually won £58m in compensation in 2019, but those involved only received around £20,000 after much of the money was spent on legal fees.

The issue gained fresh public attention following the airing of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which focuses on the case brought against the Post Office by former sub-postmaster Alan Bates.

How has the Government responded to the scandal?

In September 2023, the Government announced that those wrongfully convicted in the Horizon scandal would be offered £600,000, and claimed that £21m had already been paid in compensation.

Following the airing of the ITV drama in January 2024, the Government also quickly announced it would introduce new legislation to “swiftly exonerate and compensate” sub-postmasters convicted in the Post Office scandal.

It was also stated that it would introduce a new upfront payment of £75,000 for each of the 555 postmasters who brought a group action lawsuit against the Post Office, though many are expected to push for more.

How has the Post Office responded to the scandal?

Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells resigned in 2019 over the scandal and in January 2024, she said she would hand back her CBE after a petition calling for its removal gathered more than a million signatures.

The Post Office’s chief executive Nick Read has announced that he will return bonus money received due to his work on the Horizon inquiry, and Fujitsu bosses have told MPs that have a “moral obligation” to help fund victim compensation.

The Metropolitan Police is now investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences arising from the prosecutions.

An inquiry into the Horizon scandal has been running since February 2020, and it was converted into a full statutory inquiry in June 2021. It is expected to be completed later this year.

Is there a second Post Office scandal?

An i investigation has revealed that Capture IT, an accounting system used in the mid-90s before Horizon could also have been flawed, with sub-postmasters saying they were wrongly convicted for financial losses created by the software.

Three former Post Office operators have told i the system was prone to errors and caused shortfalls when they went to balance their books at the end of the week.

Last month, the Government ordered the Post Office to investigate claims relating to the Capture IT system, and a Post Office spokesman confirmed it will look into claims of wrongful convictions pre-dating the Horizon scandal.