by A petition calling for former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE has reached 500,000 signatures following the final episode of the ITV1 drama’s sub-postmaster scandal on Thursday night.
Mr Bates vs Post Office looking back at the scandal which saw more than 700 Royal Mail staff prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 based on incorrect information on the service’s computer system. Sub-postmasters and sub-masters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, and some were convicted and subsequently imprisoned.
Vennells, who served as Royal Mail’s Chief Executive Officer from 2012 to 2019, oversaw the organization and regularly denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system. She was awarded a CBE “for services to the Post Office and charity” in the 2019 new year’s honors list. In 2021, she said she was “deeply sorry for the suffering” after the Court of Appeal convicted 39 employees who ‘victims suffered from faults in the service’s Horizon software, made by Fujitsu, to cancel it.
The Post Office settled with 555 workers in 2019, but several died before ever seeing justice. Around 90 convictions have so far been overturned, and compensation payments have been made, and an independent statutory public inquiry is due to continue this year.
An online petition calling for Vennells to be stripped of her title was started three years ago and received little attention at the time. However, after the ITV show hit the airwaves, signatures soared, breaking the 300,000 mark after the final episode of the drama on Thursday night. The total on Friday morning was over 350,000 and was steadily increasing in the afternoon, with 540,000 by 7pm on Friday.
“Having been given a CBE for services to the Post Office, and moved out to other senior positions in government and healthcare, it is only right that this award should now be withdrawn through the forfeiture process,” the petition, which the website 38 Degree , says.
In December 2019, in a damning judgment on the Horizon issues, the High Court ruled that the original Horizon system was not robust enough and contained a number of bugs and errors. In his judgement, Justice Fraser stated that the Post Office’s approach “shows a simple institutional indifference or rejection of any possible alternatives to considering their view of Horizon, which has been maintained regardless of the weight of factual evidence to the contrary .”
He added: “This approach by the Post Office has, in fact, amounted to blatant assertions and denials which ignore what happened, at least as far as the witnesses who called before me in the Horizon Issues trial are concerned. The 21st century equivalent of claiming the world is flat.”
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Since the ITV broadcast of her show there have been calls for Vennells to hand back her CBE, including from business minister Kevin Hollinrake, who is in charge of postal services. He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Ultimately you are responsible for what happened here, you are the chief executive, if I were Paula Vennells I would seriously consider giving that back voluntarily at the this point in time.”
Meanwhile Alan Bates, the Welsh postmaster at the heart of the ITV drama, has revealed how he turned down an OBE because he didn’t feel right accepting it while Vennells was still a title. He told BBC Breakfast: “If I accepted it it would be on behalf of the whole group, but if it were accepted it would really be a slap in the face and Paula Vennells is still on her CBE – for services to the Office of Jobs. which was due to poor service to the Post Office I would understand it.”
Although this may not be as symbolic as losing a title, the current boss of the Post Office has said he will return all of his bonus pay relating to the Horizon inquiry. Nick Read again apologized for “procedural and governance mistakes made” in linking significant bonus payments to work related to the inquiry.
He said he would return this part of the £455,000 bonus he received in 2021/22, understood to be £54,400.
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer reject calls for Vennells to lose CBE
Rishi Sunak commented on the scandal on Thursday, adding that the government has no role in removing CBE Vennells. The prime minister said that the Committee for Forfeiture of Honours, which is separate from the government, is conducting an independent process.
He added: “But, more generally, my job is to make sure that we are implementing the compensation schemes and all those people who have been treated horribly, who have suffered a terrible miscarriage of justice , that we get the justice they deserve.’ I am pleased that we are delivering that, and I would encourage anyone who will be affected to come forward and ensure that they can benefit from these schemes.”
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer also stopped short of calling for Vennells to hand back his CBE. He told ITV News: “It’s really up to her whether she returns her award. But I think there’s a more important point in many ways here, that compensation for these victims is overdue. It was due in a month Christmas. The Exchequer is… putting the money aside, but the Government has not paid it.
“So I say to the Government, get up and do the right thing and pay the compensation to the victims of this miscarriage.”
Watch: Wrongly convicted sub-postmaster Paula Vennells says ‘big institution destroyed’
The ITV drama brings it back
Those affected by the scandal have spoken of the emotion the series aired, bringing back difficult memories.
Pam Stubbs, who was held at Barkham Post Office in Berkshire, and featured in the series, said it left her in tears when she saw it. She told the Bracknell News: “I’ve already seen it in pre-screening and I was in tears. Watching it at home couldn’t have been easier. It’s a tough watch.”
She added: “Some people in the village told me it was very difficult for them and they had to turn it off. They said it was heartbreaking.”
Deirdre Connolly said the drama “just brought it all back”, telling the BBC: “It was very difficult for a lot of people”. Connolly previously described how she was told to plead guilty and was forced to repay an outstanding £15,000 arrears, which led to her family having to re-mortgage their home and being declared bankrupt her
She said her health has deteriorated and she now suffers from epilepsy, which she believes was brought on by stress, telling the BBC: “The whole stigma was just horrible. My life will never be the same .”
