Pressure is growing for Sir Ed Davey, the former postal minister, about his role in the cover-up of the Post Office scandal which saw hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted and imprisoned.
Speaking on GB News, Tory MP, Damian Green said: “I think Ed Davey has a lot of questions to answer, just as ex-ministers will.”
The issue hit the headlines after ITV broadcast Mr Bates v the Post Office, the tragic story of one of the sub-postmasters whose life was destroyed by the false allegations that they had taken thousands of pounds off the Post Office.
Mr Green said: “I like to think if I had been told hundreds of sub-postmasters had suddenly become criminals, I would have asked questions about that. All my experience of sub-postmasters is that they are the definition of pillars of the community.”
He added: “The idea that hundreds of them were suddenly involved with fraud and criminality was always an extraordinary accusation.”
The Conservative MP for Ashford said: “I think Ed Davey has serious questions to answer on this, I think he’s in big trouble.”
Between 1999 and 2015 more than 700 Post Office managers were handed criminal convictions in what has been described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history after the faulty Fujitsu accounting software made it wrongly appear as though money was missing.
At the time Post Office bosses refused to listen to sub-postmasters who said there was an error with the software, with many being told incorrectly that no one else had reported a glitch.
The missing money was due to mistakes in the Horizon software being used by the Post Office but it is claimed that prosecutions were pursued even when it was clear it was the software at fault.
Questions are now being asked why, when he was the Post Office minister, Sir Ed turned down a meeting with Mr Bates while he fought for justice for wronged sub-postmasters but then went on to be paid £275,000 by the lawyers Herbert Smith Freehills who acted for the Post Office.
Sir Ed is not the only prominent figure to face questions with former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennell still refusing to hand back her CBE after she pursued the false cases.
Allies of Sir Ed are launching a fightback to help save his job. Liberal Democrat MP, Tim Farron, took to social media platform X.
He pointed out Sir Ed was the first minister on the record to meet with Mr Bates – seven years and five ministers after Mr Bates’ first contact with a minister. He met Mr Bates only five months after becoming Post Office Minister.
Mr Farron wrote: “Ed has said how much he regrets that the Post Office was lying to him, just like it was to everyone else. He’s experienced more than his fair share of tragedy in his life, I know he feels the pain of those affected by this scandal very deeply.”
Letters between the then-Minister for Postal Affairs, and Alan Bates reveal Sir Ed’s willingness to believe the Post Office.
Mr Bates, a former sub-postmaster who has led the long-running campaign for justice, became increasingly frustrated with Sir Ed for parroting the Post Office’s assurances that the Horizon system was not at fault.
The Liberal Democrat leader was Postal Affairs Minister between 2010 and 2012. He has spoken out on the Post Office scandal as he attacked senior executives, claiming he was “deeply misled” on Times Radio.
He claimed that executives blocked him from meeting campaigners and that he regretted not going further to help victims.
Between the years 1999 and 2015, the Post Office pursued branch owners across the country for alleged theft.
Many of those prosecuted lost their livelihoods, homes, and life savings as a result of having to pay back the money that the Post Office claimed was missing.
