More than 500k back petition to strip Paula Vennells of CBE over Horizon scandal after Mr Bates vs The Post Office
6 January 2024, 12:43 | Updated: 6 January 2024, 12:55
A petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE has garnered half a million signatures within days of launching.
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Her role in the Horizon IT scandal has led to fury after ITV aired Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which dramatises the affair.
Ms Vennells oversaw the Post Office as it denied there were any problems with the system, which made it appear that money was missing and let to a spate of wrongful convictions.
Some were even jailed.
Alan Bates - the hero of the series, played by Toby Jones - was offered an OBE but turned it down because Ms Vennells retains her honour.
The petition to strip her of it has now reached 680,000 backers on 38 Degrees.
"Having been handed a CBE for services to the Post Office, and moved out into other senior positions in government and healthcare, it is only right that this award is now withdrawn through the process of forfeiture," the petition states.
Sir Keir Starmer responds to Post Office Horizon scandal
It said she had "brought not only herself but the Post Office, the honours system and government into disrepute".
The ITV series has reignited interest in the subpostmaster scandal.
The Post Office had introduced Fujitsu's Horizon IT system as part of a modernisation effort in 1999.
But its glitches led to cash appearing to go missing, which was blamed on subpostmasters who ran branches.
Read more: Police investigate Post Office over ‘potential fraud offences’ committed during Horizon scandal
Mr Bates was one of the workers pursued, and he refused to pay the £1,200 loss reported at his Llandudno branch.
He was made redundant and ended up losing tens of thousands of his life savings that he had used to buy the branch.
He then spearheaded legal action that lead to a raft of convictions being overturned.
Ultimately, hundreds of innocent subpostmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting between 1999 and 2015.
In 2019, a judge ruled the Horizon system had bugs and the Post Office settled with 55 claimants who embarked on legal action.
Ms Vennells took over as Post Office CEO in 2012 but stepped down the same year as the ruling. She also received her CBE that year for services to the Post Office and charity.
She apologised as the Court of Appeal overturned 39 convictions of former subpostmasters.
"I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 sub-postmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week," she said in 2021.
In total, 93 convictions have been overturned but just 27 people have been given "full and final settlements".
A total of 54 cases have been upheld, refused permission to appeal or seen the appeal withdrawn.
Rishi Sunak has declined to say if Ms Vennells should lose her honour. Sir Keir has told LBC the government should "get on" with getting compensation to the victims.
