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Civil servants have hit back at “cowardly” former ministers who have criticised them for their alleged failure to act on the Post Office Horizon scandal.

A blame-game is under way following the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which depicted how hundreds of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were wrongly held responsible for accounting errors created by the faulty Horizon IT software.

Sir Ed Davey and Lord Peter Mandelson, who are both facing questions for their roles as postal affairs minister and business secretary during the scandal, have laid some of the blame at the door of civil servants – with the latter arguing that officials should have been “more focused and cognisant of what was going on” and that they “failed” to protect ministers.

And in an interview with Sky News, Sir Ed, the Liberal Democrat leader, accused officials in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of “lying to me” over the scandal.

Politics latest: Post Office investigators accused of behaving like ‘mafia gangsters’

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, told Sky News that Lord Mandelson’s comments were “just another cowardly example of politicians scrambling to blame others for their own mistakes”.

“Politicians are quick to take credit when things go well. They should be humble and honest enough to take responsibility for their mistakes, and swiftly deliver justice for the wronged sub-postmasters and sub-mistresses.”

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Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union for civil servants, branded Sir Ed’s comments “outrageous” and said they were an “act of desperation from a former minister trying to save his own skin”.

“Ed Davey goes beyond what is reasonable to expect from a former minister,” he told Sky News. “If he’s going to repeat this he needs to back up his accusations.”

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‘The Post Office was lying to me’

He added: “Civil servants should rightly be held to account for what they did and didn’t do, but they need an opportunity to defend themselves.”

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 people were prosecuted for a variety of offences including theft, fraud and false accounting – causing many to lose their jobs, livelihoods and reputations.

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak announced that a new law would be introduced to exonerate and compensate those caught up in the Horizon scandal and that those who were part of the group litigation order against the Post Office would also be eligible for an upfront payment of £75,000.

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Sub-postmasters were ‘guinea pigs’

Sir Ed – who was postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012 during the coalition government – has attracted particular criticism after it emerged he refused to meet sub-postmaster Alan Bates, whom the ITV drama is named after, on a number of occasions – saying in a short three-paragraph letter that a meeting “wouldn’t serve any purpose”.

However, Sir Ed did later meet with Mr Bates and was the first minister on public record to do so. It is understood he then asked his officials to follow up on the concerns raised by the sub-postmaster at their meeting.

Speaking to Sky News this week, Sir Ed said: “I wish I’d known then what we all know now. The Post Office was lying on an industrial scale to me and other ministers.

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Wrongly convicted postmaster describes ordeal

“When I met Alan Bates and listened to his concerns, I put those concerns to officials in my department, to the Post Office and to the National Federation of Postmasters and it’s clear they all were lying to me.”

Sir Ed was joined in his criticism of the civil service by Lord Mandelson, who was in charge of the oversight the Post Office from 2008 until his departure in 2010.

In his Times Radio podcast aired earlier this week, Lord Mandelson said: “I’m not trying to point the finger at particular civil servants obviously,” he added, “but they should have been much more focused and cognisant of what was going on.

“And their job is to, in a sense, both to protect ministers and serve the wider public interest, and in this instance that failed.”

Read more:
Post Office scandal: Investigators ‘offered bonuses’ to prosecute sub-postmasters
Sub-postmasters used as ‘guinea pigs’ to grind out issues in Horizon, says expert

Separately, it has emerged that Lord Mandelson was made personally aware of the Horizon issue, after an email released under the Freedom of Information (FOI) showed they were highlighted to him in 2009 by Tory peer Lord Arbuthnot.

However, rather than respond himself, the FOI instead showed a response from his junior business minister, and now close ally of Sir Keir Starmer, Pat McFadden, who said there was “nothing to indicate that there are any problems with the Horizon system”.

A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said: “Ed has been clear that Post Office managers lied to the victims, to judges and to ministers, those lies circulated across the entire system.

“It is also the case that like all former ministers and post office managers, civil servants – particularly those sitting on the post office board, must face the inquiry and answer questions.

“The priority now needs to be getting justice and compensation for the victims.”

The Labour Party has been approached for comment.

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No 10 decline to say if Palestine will be recognised with Hamas in power

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No 10 decline to say if Palestine will be recognised with Hamas in power

The prime minister’s spokesman has refused eight times to confirm whether recognition of Palestine could go ahead if Hamas remain in power and the hostages are not released. 

Keir Starmer’s spokesman was questioned by journalists for the first time since the announcement last week that the UK will formally recognise the state in September – unless Israel meets certain conditions including abiding by a ceasefire and increasing aid.

The policy has been criticised by the families of UK hostages, campaigners and some Labour MPs, who argue it would reward Hamas and say it should be conditional on the release of the remaining hostages.

A senior Hamas politician, Ghazi Hamad, speaking to Al Jazeera, said at the weekend that major nations’ decision to recognise a Palestinian state “is one of the fruits of 7 October”.

Gaza latest: Trump pressed to recognise Palestinian state

The PM’s spokesman said on Monday: “The PM is clear that on 7 October, Hamas committed the worst act of terror in Israel’s history. That horror has continued since then.

“As the foreign secretary said over the weekend, Hamas are rightly pariahs who can have no role in Gaza’s future, there is a diplomatic consensus on that. Hamas must immediately release all hostages and have no role in the governance of Gaza.”

But asked whether removing Hamas from power and releasing hostages were conditions for statehood, he said a decision on recognition would be made at the UN General Assembly meeting in September, based on “an assessment of how far the parties have met the steps we have set out. No one side will have veto on recognition through their actions or inactions.”

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Up to 300 children could be evacuated from Gaza and given NHS treatment in the UK. The plans are reportedly set to be announced within weeks.

He added: “Our focus is on the immediate situation on the ground, getting more aid in to end the suffering in Gaza and supporting a ceasefire and a long-term peace for Israelis and Palestinians based a two-state solution.”

Starmer, who recalled his cabinet for an emergency meeting last week before setting out the new position, is following the lead of French president Emmanuel Macron, who first pledged to move toward recognising Palestinian statehood in April.

Read more:
New US plan for Gaza starting to emerge
Hamas responds to disarmament reports

Canada has also backed recognition if conditions are met, including by the Palestinian Authority.

The prime minister had previously said he would recognise a state of Palestine as part of a contribution to a peace process.

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Efforts to bring Gazan children to the UK for urgent medical treatment are set to be accelerated under new government plans.

In his announcement last Tuesday, he said: “We need to see at least 500 trucks entering Gaza every day. But ultimately, the only way to bring this humanitarian crisis to an end is through a long-term settlement.

“So we are supporting the US, Egyptian and Qatari efforts to secure a vital ceasefire. That ceasefire must be sustainable and it must lead to a wider peace plan, which we are developing with our international partners.

“I’ve always said we will recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process, at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution. With that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act.”

Adam Rose, a lawyer acting for British families of hostages in Gaza, has said: “Why would Hamas agree to a ceasefire if it knew that to do so would make British recognition of Palestine less likely?”

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Coinbase turns lobbying efforts to UK in scathing op-ed

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Coinbase turns lobbying efforts to UK in scathing op-ed

Coinbase turns lobbying efforts to UK in scathing op-ed

Former UK Chancellor and current Coinbase adviser George Osborne says the UK is falling behind in the cryptocurrency market, particularly when it comes to stablecoins.

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Nigel Farage dared me to walk in London after 9pm: Here’s my response

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Nigel Farage dared me to walk in London after 9pm: Here's my response

At a press conference today in which Reform UK announced the Tory police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire was joining their ranks, as well as former prison governor Vanessa Frake, I asked Nigel Farage a simple question.

But his answer wasn’t what I expected.

I asked the Reform UK leader if the six-week campaign on law and order, with the tagline “Britain is Lawless”, was in fact project fear scaring people into voting for his party.

He utterly rejected that claim and responded to me saying: “No, they are afraid. They are afraid. I dare you, I dare you to walk through the West End of London after 9 o’clock of an evening wearing jewellery. You wouldn’t do it. You know that I’m right. You wouldn’t do it.”

I am not afraid to walk in the West End of London after 9pm wearing jewellery.

I have done it many times before and will continue to do so… but perhaps that is because I do not own a Rolex.

However, just because Farage is wrong on that point, doesn’t mean he isn’t tapping into other legitimate fears across the country.

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Snatch theft does worry me, hence why I now have a phone case with a strap attached to it that I can put around my body.

And I worry about knife crime in my area and what the impact could be if I were to have children – on the weekend someone was stabbed to death a stone’s throw from my house.

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Farage ‘not mincing his words’

However, if we look at the statistics, it is invariably a more nuanced picture than Farage or social media might have us believe.

According to police reports, thefts from a person in London are almost five times the national average, and they’ve been going up since the pandemic.

And the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also notes that thefts outside of the home, eg phone snatching, has increased.

However, possession of weapons has fallen in London by 29% over the last three years.

And according to the ONS, crime in England and Wales is 30% lower than in 2015, and 76% lower than 1995.

And it is a similar picture for violent crime.

In short, am I right to be more worried that snatch theft and knife crime in London is increasing? Yes, and no.

But Nigel Farage is tapping into voters’ emotions – their feelings that the country is broken. It’s a picture the Conservative Party helped to create and the Labour Party happily painted to great effect during the general election campaign of 2024.

And the more politicians of all colours tell voters that “the system is broken”, the more voters might start to believe them.

That is what Nigel Farage is banking on.

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