North Yorkshire MP calls for those responsible for the Post Office Horizon Scandal to be held to account

Mr Hollinrake met with Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, to discuss how the branch managers could clear their names in the wake of the scandal which has received national attention following ITV drama series Mr Bates vs The Post Office which aired last week.

The body routinely denied that there was any problem with its Horizon IT system, and more than 700 branch managers were convicted after faulty Fujitsu accounting software made it look like money was missing from their stores.

Speaking to Richard Madely and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain Mr Hollinrake said he would support any criminal prosecutions following the scandal.

He said: “I explained that our focus was on delivering compensation as quickly as possible, as fairly as possible. That puts people back in the position they would have been had this scandal never happened.

“But also so that we can identify who is responsible for this scandal and hold them to account.”

Mr Hollinrake also criticised the CBE awarded to former Post Office Chief Executive Paula Vennells. He said: “If I was Paula Vennells, I would seriously look at handing that (CBE) back voluntarily.”

Mr Hollinrake took to Twitter to highlight the actions which have been taken to assist those affected by the scandal so far. He said: “ 100% of known Post Office Horizon victims have received interim payments of up to £168k, 100% of those in the original Horizon Shortfall Scheme have received offers (>80% have accepted), 64% of all known victims have accepted full settlement, but working day and night to do more.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sought to defend the Government’s response but said he wanted to speed up the compensation process for victims.

“People should know that we are on it and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside,” he said.

“We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong what happened. They shouldn’t have been treated like this.”

Reports suggest that since Mr Bates vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.