Questions remain after Post Office scandal - but PM has taken himself out of firing line

When nine million people watch a TV drama that then provokes a national outpouring of anger over the postmasters’ fight for justice, a prime minister would do well to acknowledge the public mood and act.

And that’s exactly what we have seen Rishi Sunak do this week.

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On Monday, Tory MP David Davis, who has been fighting on this issue for years, publicly instructed Number 10 to deal with this scandal in weeks rather than months.

And 48 hours later, Mr Sunak was at the despatch box for the first Prime Minister’s Questions of 2024 to announce the government would introduce new laws to ensure hundreds of convictions will be overturned on a blanket basis, with compensation planned by the end of the year.

“We will make sure that the truth comes to light, we right the wrongs of the past and the victims get the justice they deserve,” he told MPs.

The government confirmed it would table that legislation in weeks, and underlined its pledge of swift exoneration by telling the victims of the Horizon scandal all they needed to do was “sign a statement to the effect that they did not commit the crimes of which they’re accused to get compensated – and their name cleared”.

“I do not pretend to the House that this is a foolproof device,” postal minister Kevin Hollinrake told MPs.

“But it is a proportionate one which respects the ordeal with which these people have already suffered.”

For the prime minister, still suffering the contagion of the Johnson and Truss administrations, there was little option but to act fast.

He simply could not let the string of wrongful prosecutions and convictions of postmasters that began during the Cameron years come back to haunt him.

It is true acting decisively is easier when the House is united, but it is also true, after a rough run around the Rwanda deportation plan, Mr Sunak at last has something to lead on that he might hope could even win him some credit with voters who don’t appear to like him much.

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But the news today is just the end of the beginning of this scandal.

As victims are finally compensated and exonerated, attention in Westminster is now turning to those in the Post Office who pursued this claims and the IT giant Fujitsu, which designed the faulty software.

MPs were already today pressing ministers on whether the Japanese software company should help foot the compensation bill, while there are growing calls for it to be stripped of public contracts.

With the victims of this scandal now getting justice, attention will shift to who might be held responsible for what has happened and what form potential sanctions might take.

There will be questions to answer by ministers during the Cameron years, not least Lib Dem leader and former postal affairs minister Ed Davey, as well as executives at the Post Office and Fujitsu.

But in taking action so swiftly this week, the current prime minister has moved decisively to take himself and his administration out of the firing line.

This article was originally published by Sky.com. Read the original article here.

Questions remain after Post Office scandal – but PM has taken himself out of firing line | Beth Rigby

Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge