Kemi Badenoch has strongly hinted that more sackings of senior figures could follow at the Post Office following the Horizon scandal and other issues with the state owned company.
The Business Secretary likened the decision to force Henry Staunton out as Post Office chairman “by mutual consent” to telling her children it was bed time in an interview with Sky News’ Sir Trevor Phillips.
Mr Phillips compared the “the mutual consent” of Staunton’s departure to telling her children to go to bed. She responded: “My children know when I say it’s time for bed they will be in trouble if they don’t go.”
In the wake of the Post Office/Horizon scandal and other problem Ms Badenoch said: “Given everything that has happened this year I think we need someone new who can deal with these issues in a different way.”
She made the point that she “didn’t appoint” Staunton.
“If there are difficulties with the board then I need to intervene. The wrong thing would be to sit back with that bureaucratic indifference and say ‘well he’s only been there for a year let’s hope things just get better.’
“I see it as my job to intervene if I don’t think things will be working.”
When Phillips directly asked her if there will be more sackings, Ms Badenoch refused to rule them out.
She said: “I won’t be making any further comments around personnel changes. I think we need to do these things in a civilised way, I don’t like to do HR on TV. It’s not fair on the individuals.”
The Business Secretary also made it clear she will be demanding that Japanese software giant Fujitsu should pick up part of the bill for the compensation for sub-post masters.
The scandal, which shocked the country when it was played out on an ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, saw hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted for phantom money losses because of a software failure from the Fujitsu Horizon programme.
The cover up has already seen former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells lose her CBE and questions asked about Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey’s failure to act when he was Post Office minister.
Ms Badenoch said Fujitsu now should pay part of the compensation.
She told Phillips: “Fujitsu are very much a part of this story and I hope they will do the right thing.”
