Keir Starmer ignores plea to help victims of Post Office scandal | Politics | News

Sir Alan Bates told MPs that the Prime Minister had yet to respond to his requests for help in settling compensation claims for those affected by the Horizon scandal.

A leading campaigner and former postmaster general told the Business and Commerce Committee’s brief inquiry on Tuesday into ensuring “prompt and fair redress” that he had written to Sir Keir Starmer I asked for help about a month ago.

Sir Alan represented claimants from 555 post office managers who brought the Post Office claim to the High Court between 2017 and 2019, also known as the GLO scheme.

He told MPs that 70 GLO claimants had died while compensation was being investigated and others were now “in their late 80s… and still suffering”.

The campaigner said he wrote to the Prime Minister again a few days ago “to remind him that I never received a response” to his initial letter urging him to help set a deadline for the Department of Business and Trade of next March year (DBT) to sort all damage claims.

Sir Alan said another campaign for fairness in the courts was being considered, adding: “I won’t say I haven’t talked to people about it.”

Committee chairman Liam Byrne asked Sir Alan: “Do you know when this will come to an end?”

The former deputy postmaster replied: “I wrote to the Prime Minister about a month ago.”

Mr Byrne chimed in: “You wrote, you wrote twice.”

Sir Alan continued: “I originally wrote to him about a month ago and said this needs to be completed, it needs to be completed by the end of March 2025.

“There needs to be a deadline and we have asked for his help in setting that deadline.

“I never received an answer. I wrote to him a few days ago to remind him that I never received a response.

“We are now five months away from the end of March 2025.”

Sir Alan added: “People have waited too long, over 20-plus years, over 70 people have died in the GLO group.

“There are now people over 80 who are still suffering.

“They still have to deal with it. They shouldn’t do this. They really shouldn’t do that.”

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were prosecuted after faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear as if money was missing from their stores.

Asked whether he would consider returning “to court with a crowdfunding campaign for justice”, Sir Alan said: “I would never say never. This must be taken into account.

“I won’t say I haven’t talked to people about it, but I know that if we decide to go down this path, we will stop the current scheme and it will be at least another six, 12 or even 24 months before he will move in this direction.

“Perhaps people are ready to accept this choice.

“We’re having a group meeting in a few weeks and that’s one of the options we’re going to be discussing, as well as a few other options.

“But we have to move this forward.”

Sir Alan added: “There needs to be a time limit on this thing, they are terrified of the time limits, the department.”

Appearing alongside Sir Alan were former postmaster Dewey Lewis, who was jailed for four months after he was wrongfully convicted of stealing from his branch, and Jill Donnison, a complainant who worked at her late mother’s branch.

Ms Donnison criticized some of the questions she had to answer as part of her attempts to win compensation as “long-winded and impossible to answer”.

She said the plaintiffs should have known how much they lost, even though key data was missing from the records and documents provided by the Post Office were “virtually illegible.”

“I was doing this on behalf of my deceased mother, and it was just impossible to respond,” she said.

She called the Postal Department’s expectations for plaintiffs, which she said arose without any offer of support, “shameful.”

Mr Lewis expressed doubt whether he would have received the £200,000 payment, which was only sent after his appearance, before the select committee was approved.

“Until last week, we had no idea when we would receive the initial payment. And so, it was announced that I would be before you… surprise, surprise, 200,000 people arrived on Friday morning. I try not to be cynical, but I find it very difficult,” he told MPs.

Since being “strongly advised” to plead guilty to the wrongful charge, Mr Lewis said he has lost both parents, gone through a divorce and been forced to start taking anxiety medication just “to help me get through it”.

“I served four months in HM Prison Alternative. It was terrible to see mom and dad come in. I felt even worse for them than for myself. Having said that I was lucky. There were postmasters who had to go through much worse prisons than Altcourse,” he said.