What is the latest development in the Post Office scandal?
The Horizon affair is back in the headlines, with a reprise of the argument between Kemi Badenoch and former Post Office chair Henry Staunton. Sean O’Grady looks at why it’s all kicked off again, and whether justice is ever likely to be delivered
You could call it “Mrs Badenoch vs The Post Office”. There are few spectacles less edifying than a “he says/she says” row between two prominent figures in public life – and especially one in which each combatant’s main aim is to blame the other for some tragic injustice. So it is in the case of Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, and the former chair of the Post Office, Henry Staunton, whom she sacked on 26 January over the phone. She said someone had to “take the rap”. He disagrees it should be him.
What are they rowing about?
Badenoch said around that time that she had asked Staunton to step down because his position as chair of the board “just wasn’t working”, and that fresh leadership was needed for the organisation because of concerns about “the entire business model” – ie it was about more than just the Horizon scandal.
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