Lee Anderson has told under-fire Sir Ed Davey to “man up” over the Post Office Horizon scandal – and hand over his knighthood to victim Alan Bates.
The Liberal Democrat leader, who was Post Office minister during the coalition government, has been castigated in recent days for his role in the crisis.
Many have urged him to take responsibility and resign, with Mr Anderson telling him at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday to “clear off”.
The Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party doubled down on his attack on GB News on Wednesday night, telling Mark Dolan that Sir Ed was “damaged, very damaged” by the affair.
“Here’s a man we now know is a hypocrite, a hypocrite of the highest order,” said the Ashfield MP when discussing the scandal, which has been dramatised by ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
“He needs to man up now. I would suggest to Ed, give your knighthood to Mr Bates. He deserves it more than you and just clear off.”
Mr Bates was one of the hundreds of subpostmasters accused of stealing money when in fact the Horizon IT system they were using was faulty.
He spent years fighting to uncover the truth, with convictions of those jailed for stealing overturned many years later.
Mr Anderson criticised Sir Ed for not being in the House of Commons Chamber during PMQs.
He added: “As MPs or even ministers, when you listen to people who have got a problem like a postmaster, there’s always two sides to every story.
“People like Ed Davey chose to listen to the Post Office rather than the lowly workers. It’s absolutely disgraceful.
“I cannot imagine – imagine being that subpostmaster in a dock in a court. You’ve worked hard all your life and that judge sends you to prison like he did to a constituent of mine for three years. Absolutely devastating.
“Ed Davey, he’s slithered off somewhere this week. He’s hiding. I’d have thought more of him if he’d been in the Chamber today and manned up and faced us, but he didn’t.”
