Post Office Horizon scandal: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must up the ante away from off-the-peg platitudes

They say a week is a long time in politics, though in the case of the Post Office’s Horizon scandal, the same can be said of a weekend.
Former Bridlington Post Office subpostmaster Lee Castleton, pictured in his home town of Scarborough. 5th January 2004. Picture Jonathan GawthorpeFormer Bridlington Post Office subpostmaster Lee Castleton, pictured in his home town of Scarborough. 5th January 2004. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe
Former Bridlington Post Office subpostmaster Lee Castleton, pictured in his home town of Scarborough. 5th January 2004. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe
The Yorkshire Post
By The Yorkshire Post
Published 8th Jan 2024, 05:00 BST

For more water has passed under this particular bridge in the last 48 hours than that of the region’s rivers, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Government coming under unforgiving pressure from what feels like the collective national conscience to set the record straight once and for all for the hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses whose lives were ruined owing to false accusations of wrongdoing caused by a faulty IT accounting system.

Yet, it is fair to say that Mr Sunak appeared to have misjudged the outrage that has gripped right-minded people who are now not only furious on behalf of the hundreds of people implicated in this most cynical of miscarriages of justice, but are now more sceptical, fearful even, of the Establishment.

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The very underpinnings of our democracy, the scales of justice, are with every passing day that the Horizon scandal remains unresolved being undermined.

Mr Sunak has created for himself a persona that he hopes conveys a sense of serene control, an unflappable man who is trying his best to calmly navigate choppy waters but in his remarks yesterday to the BBC he ought to have gone further than he did.

For now it is not only those wronged by the Post Office who are clamouring for answers. We all are. Now is not the time for generic, off-the-peg platitudes. Now is the time to announce the formulation of a fully fledged legal team, compensation agency and dedicated criminal investigators.

Related topics:Rishi SunakPost OfficeGovernmentBBC

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