Kemi Badenoch Horizon compensation row

Let's move on to the ne the big story of the daythe one that's setting the um the news agenda this week uh which is the Revelation over the weekendthat the man who's just been sat as head of the post office claims that he was told to go slowon compensation to those postmasters and post mistresses who were wrongly accused of theft afterthe Horizon computers in each branch totted up the day takings wrongly Now Kevin can you take usthrough this bit let's start at the beginning what's this it's called Henry ston what's hesaying exactly he was the chief executive of the post office used to be a W Smith he's oneof the city uh bods who go around picking up uh up jobs he claims he was fired by KY badok thebusiness secretary and he says he was asked to carry the can for the delays over the compensationscheme to postmasters postm over that Fujitsu post.

Office Horizon I T Scandal but he'd been toldby someone very senior uh civil servant to um to go slow and Limp to the election so all themoney isn't paid this this side of the election now KY badok who rang him up and sacked him a fewSaturdays ago uh says he's totally misrepresented what happened she has a record of the call shemade an official was uh was listening in and he's told pack of Lies she did all this on X formerlyTwitter she can be a bit uh overeager yeah there she is there's the there's the Tweet so I readit out for the benefit of the podcast she says my call with ston was with officials they took acomplete record he's given an interview full of lies about our conversation during his dismissalthe details will emerge soon enough as I won't let the matter rest here and I'm talking togovernment lawyers now what's interesting.

About this was completely mad is in Henry st'sinterview which was given with Sunday times he didn't mention k p once well his conversation waswith an official an official told me didn't name that person didn't blame that person didn't saywhat department they were in and kimy badok says he told a pack of lies about me yeah well she'sshe's gone for the dismissal interview that's the pack of Lies totally misrepresented not the notthe bigger issue which I think affects you post post Mistresses and we'll all be more concernedin is whether or not he was told to go slow on the compensation that is the that is the keybit dare I see it the killer bit not where exactly why she sacked him in what she said and Iwasn't I wasn't impressed by Henry ston you know what i' what I've seen and heard I must admitbut I know K badok can be a bit fast and loose.

Uh at times I mean she's still hailing brexita great uh a great success and uh pretending the trade deals she's struck of been struck ofbeing good including New Zealand and Australia which the former environment secretary George ussaid were one-sided and weren't good for British British Army but anyway coming back to the postoffice it's she's going to make a statement in the Commons today so it's going to be she said he saidbut what evidence is there I think he's got to put up uh a shut up and give us far more detail onon what he claims he was told to do she's got to answer questions because at the moment she seemsto have left most of the post office to her Junior the post office Minister Kevin Hollen who admittedthat really the government didn't pull its finger out and get going until Mr Bates versus the postoffice uh lit public opinion up and created such.

A huge backlash so the government has been hasbeen slow but was it was the head deliberately told that was was that the case it was it just aninstitution and its bureaucracy dragging its feet and not wanting to admit liability any more thanit had to and not wanting to pay too much money out what do you think everybody do you think thisis the kind of thing is this what you expected perhaps to happen are you surprised by this doyou want Henry ston to stop naming who said what when or do you think that the civil servant whoif someone did say this you know just doing what they're told to BU a minister so they're kindof they they're kind of Fairly innocent maybe it's the minister who should be named and shamedand have to answer some questions what would you like to happen what's the postmaster's responseKevin because you know these are people like Alan.

Bates recently lionized by that ITV drama whowho led the Battle of thousands of ordinary men and women who took on a government owned serviceafter they basically being ground to dust by the Machinery of the state wrongly prosecuted wronglyconvicted I mean they are I assume not that a surprise the state is still apparently unwillingto deal fairly with them no and they're starting to turn against the UK conservative government nowof course the Tories had an electoral interest in going after to Ed da the leader of the liberalDemocrats who was the post office minister in the at the start of the coalition government theconser liberal Democrat Coalition in in 2010 and dragged his feet over uh meeting Allen bit so hedid meet him uh in in the end first first Minister who did but the the turn against Tories now themirror's got quoting Michael raden whose wife was.

Wrongly convicted saying the government needs tobe punished at the B box we're now 24 years on how long is this going to take inside the mirror thereis a a former post uh Post Master Christopher head he was Britain's youngest sub poost Masterwhen he took over a a branch in west Balden near Sunland I know I know the place uh wellwho said he's always voted uh Tori but he won't anymore because it's so much of this is is occuroccurring on this government's watch the slowness in terms of giving Justice to the to the wronglyconvicted and giving them compensation and bad not can't um just sweep that away she might have thisdispute with the Henry ston that might both be at fault to some extent but she hasn't got completelyclean hands on this no so that ITV drama basically caused the government to start acting finallyon this Scandal basically because it became an.

Electoral issue and here we have a situation wherenow it's becoming an electoral issue because it's coming closer and closer to an election that theyhaven't paid this compensations Mike says if this is true she could of course arrange the paymentsimmediately she could she could just go pay the cash now there is a reason isn't there that'sabout all of this we've got you know we know the government's response kem's response which is youknow I fired him for not doing for not getting a grip on this so that's why he got fired because hewasn't sorting this out so you now to accuse me of not sorting out as astonishing and we've also gotbut though other situations which are exactly the same problem so the infected blood inquiry whichhas a multi-billion pound Bill the chair of that inquiry has ordered the government to pay £100,000pound ahead interim compensation never mind more.

On top and that's not happened he's called thechancellor and the former Chancellor give evidence and it's still not happened you've got the wasbywomen whose uh pensions were delayed and are due some kind of compensation they've not been paidout you've got the nuclear veterans with their blood Scandal which is starting a legal case andthe minister said if you if you have evidence you need to suw us you've got rack that hasn't beenproperly funded and paid for out of schools War pensions everywhere that haven't been sort ofpaid to people Leslie says I'm not surprised in the slightest bit we're pretty used this formof underhand Behavior it's a delayed tactic in itself I wrote about this a little while ago Kevbecause it started to look like to me that there was a deliberate political choice not to paycompensation now and to kick it into the long.

Grass because at some point labor were goingto win and then after that point Kier starmer and Rachel Reeves who's quite conservative inher in her uh dealing with financial matters conservative with a small SE um would have to paybillions just billions to people all those people never mind all the other scam I have't mentionedlike orrie and hillsbor and grenfell and they've got a massive Bill and they're just not going tobe able to do it to some extent no you're right cical is it a political choice no the the checksare all going to come due when labor are in in power assuming they win the general electionwhich looks pretty certain uh at at the moment they're going to be pick up picking up the taband as you see it's going to be billions just how many billions and it it does feel as thegovernment is looking to squeeze spending uh.

Find some money for tax cods or just invented uhit doesn't really care about borrowing anymore this government I mean it's so much uh the debtis so much higher than what it inherit from labor in 2010 but no it does feel like a a policy umbut when uh when you were talking there I just I also noticed in Bono's um Twitter uh torrentshe also says the chair Henry ston was was there were very serious allegations about his conductuh including blocking an investigation into that conduct well what was that it sounds like aserious allegation from kemy Bad knock she's going to have to put I'll show up on that yeahnow HC on Twitter says as far as the infected blood compensation not being you know should bein the budget that we're expecting next month without that more victims will die waiting anda five to 20 billion pound hole be left in the.

Country's finances based on HM treasury leaks tothe Ft there needs to be there is a mass Lobby in Parliament on the 28th of this month callingfor the infected blood money to be in the budget Lindsay says standards in government have beenflushed down the toilet during the past 11 years so what happens next with this story then Kevwe've got Henry ston saying I was told to go slow you've got KY badok saying I sacked himbecause he was useless you've got an inquiry which is looking into what went wrong at the timeso isn't maybe going to call can't really call him because he was chief executive well after whatwent wrong um so could he for example be called to a select committee and you because thispresumably just a chat he had with someon it was all oral there's no record of it so he's GNAhave to give evidence under oath to make it look.

Like yeah well if she she gets up in the House ofCommons uh today and gives her side and makes a whole series of allegations he's going to have torespond and you can either you can either do that in a series of interviews or as you you say youcould be recalled by committee the the business committee had a very good day when it had peoplefrom all sides uh in this this Scandal involving Fujitsu and the PO and the post office and allthe victims uh they could have another session and call him call badok and uh and call him yeahhave one after the other or I'd quite like them both together I quite like a head-to-head somebodyin between to try and you know keep some uh some order I mean because look the the TRU the truth isout there but will we ever get it that's the point is it we need to know actually what's happenedhere and if if an official has said something.

Or done something which perhaps isn't quite whatthey should have done or said you know who given the original instruction and so on what so if Kjust go through a little bit the rules for us if Kem makes a statement to Parliament is that justa statement I mean obviously There are rules about telling the truth in Parliament and misleadingParliament so penalties for it but is she gonna get questions from the house or does she just makea statement and sit down that's that no she get questions yeah you she could she could issue it'llbe interest to see what happens because she said she was Consulting the Department's lawyers theDepartment's lawyers will have had please write my statement for me they will have had kittensover what she was putting on X Twitter uh say a pack of lies and so on that's not how lawyerslike a secretary of state to to speak they don't.

Like anyone to speak like that lawyers like checkeverything with him so she could issue a written statement she could give some some media interviewinterviews or she stands up in the Commons which this morning is what we were led to believe butwe won't know until later uh today whether that's the case then she will get questions from MPS butuh you know will they be will they have all the facts you need you need Henry Henry st's versionKem bok's version and then you sort of mix it and put it all together then you ask questions basedon on that and then you make your mind up who it comes down who do you believe yeah you've reallygot to be able to draw the lines one to the other and sometimes just have it printed out in front ofyou to go well where's the gaps here where they're not addressing the other what the other personsays let's be honest both both have got you know.

Are self-interested uh and it's you know may mayjust see facts selectively May interpret them in you know ways you wouldn't agree but you just youyou want to see it all so my preference would be a head tohe head and hourong badok V ston postoffice th you can adjudicate Alan B referee yeah get out oh God wouldn't that there we are you'vegot it now Alan bit grilling the pair of them having them sat side by side yeah that's what we'dwant because he knows more about this and anybody else so they could wriggle and they can squirmbut they wouldn't get off the hook with him no that would be fantastic wouldn't it just about anypostm or postmistress I would imagine would do a fantastic job they be the audience and they couldcome in with supplementary questions there you go there you go idea any question time producers ifyou're watching this week that's what we want Alan.

Get rid of Fiona Bruce Alan bits this week in thechair K on one side Henry on the other let him go yeah accepted y yeah that would be fantastic rightwell I suspect that's going to obviously just wool the Roose for at least the first part of the weekif not the rest of it probably so KY stand up and speaks today if she gets time to speak today thenthere'll be questions then there'll be her sort of unscripted responses to those questions andthen everyone's going to start picking through the Sweet Corner and trying to find out what elseis there and then by Thursday we're going to have a whole different version of events I expect soit's gonna run and run and run this story and I suspect if we do have a sooner election then itmay actually become an issue in that election as well who knows as to who who's going to pay howmuch compensation and what is can labor commit.

To paying all this compensation if they can'tcommit to a green project why are they going to how are they going to commit to the billionsall these compensation schemes are going to cost them

Sharing is caring!