A Kent MP and former postal minister has welcomed the decision of the former boss of the Post Office to return her CBE.
Kelly Tolhurst, who represents Rochester and Strood, had called for the honour bestowed to Paula Vennells, the disgraced former chief executive of The Post Office, Ltd to be taken back.
She said: “She would have had access to all the information at the time.
“Give it up before it’s taken away.”
Ms Tolhurst held the key role for a year from 2019 when disturbing details of the scandal impacting the lives of hundreds of sub-postmasters and post mistresses across the UK were still emerging.
Dubbed “the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history”, innocent employees fell victim to the flawed Horizon IT system which led to many of them being wrongly charged with dishonesty, theft and fraud charges.
Their ordeal, centred around the Japanese high-tech organisation Fujitsu, has been thrown into the spotlight some two decades later with the screening of the series Mr Bates vs The Post Office on ITV.
It highlighted the devastating effects it had on workers, including ill health, suicides and imprisonment.
Ms Tolhurst said: “Vennells was there at a time it was going through the courts.
“It has all blown up because of the television programme, but I have known about this for a long time.”.
Ms Tolhurst blamed the “culture” of the management of The Post Office for covering up an IT system which was littered with bugs and glitches.
She said: “I don’t believe there is a single accountable individual.
“My relationship was challenging with management. There was a lack of openness and transparency.
“If they had been more open early doors, a lot of this would have been resolved.
“People did not realise that these were not prosecution brought by the Crown but by The Post Office.
“These were private prosecutions which went unchallenged.
“The government owns The Post Office 100 per cent, but at arm’s length. This should not have happened.
“It’s time to draw a line under this for these people. There’s no sense in dragging it through the courts.”
There are currently calls for all convictions to be quashed through an Act of Parliament.
Paula Vennalls was awarded the CBE for services to the post office and charity in 2019 when she stepped down as chief executive.
At the time court proceedings were under way.
After the screening of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, more than a million people signed a petition to have her stripped of the accolade.
Kevin Lygo, managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, said: “The unwavering success of Mr Bates Vs The Post Office demonstrates the undeniable power of TV, particularly public service broadcasting.
“Aside from it being a ratings hit, dramatising the story with such a high calibre of British actors has reignited the campaign for justice nearly 25 years on, for a group of ordinary people – and the entire nation is behind them.”
