Post Office chief doesn’t ‘believe’ ex-chair Staunton’s payment delay claim is ‘true’
Post Office chief executive Nick Read has told MPs he doesn’t “believe” former chairman Henry Staunton’s claim he was told to delay Horizon compensation payments is “true”.
Post Office chief executive Nick Read has told MPs he doesn’t “believe” former chairman Henry Staunton’s claim he was told to delay Horizon compensation payments is “true”.
Read, appearing before the House of Commons business and trade committee, told MPs he does not believe anyone at the company was told by the government to slow payments.
Labour MP Liam Byrne questioned Read about the former chairman who in an interview with the Sunday Times “made allegations in public that he received either direct instructions or by a nod and a wink orders in effect to try and slow the process down so that ‘the Tories could limp into the next election’ minimising financial liabilities”.
Asked whether he believed Staunton “did receive such a message”, Read said: “I don’t believe that to be the case and I can categorically say that nobody in my team or myself has received any instruction from the government about slowing down compensation.”
Asked directly if he “believe[s] the former chairman is lying?” Read said: “Well, I don’t believe it’s true. I don’t believe that is the case.
“I think he’s misinterpreted or perhaps misunderstood the conversation he had with [then-Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [BEIS] permanent secretary Sarah] Munby.
“If I look at the data that I provided to him before he had that briefing, I at no stage mentioned compensation, it was absolutely a conversation about the long-term future and funding of the Post Office, and I don’t believe that it had anything to do with compensation.”
Read’s comments came after business secretary Kemi Badenoch furiously hit back at Staunton’s account and Munby denied such a conversation took place.
Byrne added: “Is it possible he came away from that conversation having misinterpreted what was said to him?”
Read said: “I don’t believe it is. We’ve had no conversations at all about the mixing of funding between the compensation schemes and the overall funding of the Post Office per se and I don’t think in any way comes through in his notes.
“It’s possible – you’ll have to ask Mr Staunton whether he misinterpreted. I don’t believe that to be the case.”
Staunton will give his own evidence later this afternoon as the mammoth session continues.
