Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch refused to pull her punches in the Commons today, when accusing the former Post Office chairman of making “completely false” and “patently untrue” claims about her and her departmental officials this weekend.
Ms Badenoch, who skipped a Cabinet meeting to rebut the claims in person, slammed Henry Staunton’s comments that the Government is deliberately delaying the payment of compensation to sub-postmasters as “a disgrace”.
The war of words comes after Mr Staunton used a Sunday Times interview to make allegations that the Government wanted compensation payouts delayed, so they can “limp into the election” with the lowest possible financial liability.
He also claimed that Ms Badenoch told him “someone’s got to take the rap” and refused to apologise that he had found out about his sacking via Sky News before being told by the Department for Business.
The Business Secretary addressed three ‘false allegations’ from the interview, which sparked outrage over the weekend.
Ms Badenoch refuted the claim that she failed to apologise and that Mr Staunton learned of his sacking from Sky News, saying she made it “abundantly clear” that she disapproved of the media breaking any aspect of the story.
The top minister argued that she went to “great pains” to make any concerns about the former chairman’s conduct private.
Secondly she denied that Mr Staunton had been sacked to “take the rap”, revealing that there had been “serious concerns” about his behaviour as chai, as well as a formal investigation into allegations of bullying.
She claimed he had taken a “cavalier approach to governance”, which was the last thing the Post Office needed in the wake of the Horizon scandal.
Finally Ms Badenoch said there is “no evidence whatsoever” to substantiate Mr Staunton’s claim that he was told to delay compensation for political reasons.
She added that if such evidence does exist, it is for him to produce it as it is “very hard to refute a negative”. She argued: “People just making wild baseless accusations and then demanding proof that they didn’t happen are mischief-making in my view”.
Despite the anger sparked by Mr Staunton’s initial claims, Ms Badenoch praised her Labour counterpart, Jonathan Reynolds, for refusing to play party politics over the matter.
Responding to questions from Mr Reynolds, she gave a categoric assurance that no instruction was given by her nor any departmental official to delay payments.
Ms Badenoch argued that in making the allegations this weekend, Mr Staunton risked “damaging confidence in the compensation schemes”. She labelled the Sunday Times interview as a “blatant attempt to seek revenge following his dismissal”.
Former postal affairs minister Paul Scully joined Ms Badenoch in slapping down the former chairman’s allegations, arguing that the officials he worked with at the department were “energised” to pay compensation to victims of the Horizon scandal.
He argued: “I cannot believe for a minute that just a few months later they would be doing and thinking the polar opposite”.
