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Money wrongfully taken from victims of the Horizon scandal may have gone into the pay of Post Office executives, MPs have been told.

Nick Read, chief executive of the Post Office, said the company has still “not got to the bottom of” what happened to the cash paid by sub-postmasters and mistresses in a bid to cover the false financial black holes created by the Horizon software.

He said it has been investigated two or three times by external auditors, but it is something “we have struggled to uncover” due to various issues, including a low quality of data.

As it happened:
MPs quiz Fujitsu – after admission of ‘bugs and errors’

However, he admitted it is a possibility the money taken from branch managers could have been part of “hefty numeration packages for executives”.

“It’s possible, absolutely it’s possible,” he said.

Mr Read said the information has been provided to the statutory inquiry into the Horizon scandal, which will look into the question of where the money went.

He appeared before MPs on the business committee alongside Paul Patterson, director of Europe’s Fujitsu Services Limited.

It follows renewed outrage over the issue after the airing of ITV drama Mr Bates Vs the Post Office, which documented the postmasters’ 20-year fight for justice.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 Post Office branch managers were handed criminal convictions for theft and false accounting after discrepancies in Fujitsu’s Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their stores.

Some went to jail, many were financially ruined and the scandal has been linked to at least four suicides.

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Fujitsu: ‘We did have bugs in the system’

Firm ‘involved from start’ has compensation ‘obligation’

Mr Patterson told MPs he was sorry on behalf of his company – as he accepted it would have to pay into the redress scheme.

“Fujitsu would like to apologise for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice,” Mr Patterson said.

“We were involved from the very start.

“We did have bugs and errors in the system and we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters and for that we are truly sorry.”

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He said the company gave evidence which was used to send innocent people to prison, and while he did not know exactly when bosses first knew of issues related to Horizon, it had bugs at a “very early stage”.

He went on to say that the company has a “moral obligation” to contribute to the compensation scheme for those whose lives were ruined by the scandal.

He said that he has spoken to the company’s bosses in Japan and it expects to have a conversation with the government about how much it should pay.

Read more:
Investigators ‘offered bonuses’ to prosecute
Who are the key figures in the scandal?

The government has set aside £1 billion for Horizon victims and previously indicated it will pursue Fujitsu for the costs if the inquiry finds it is to blame.

Mr Patterson, who has been in his current role since 2019, said he did not know why the tech firm didn’t act when it knew there were glitches in the system.

“On a personal level I wish I did and following my employment in 2019, I’ve looked back on those situations for the company and from the evidence I’ve seen, I just don’t know.”

MPs ‘shocked’ by evidence

MPs at times appeared frustrated at the lack of answers from the two executives about who knew what and when.

Mr Read was unable to say when the Post Office knew that remote access to the Horizon software was possible.

The assertion that remote access to the Horizon terminals was impossible was central to the Post Office’s position that there had been no miscarriages of justice in the years it was prosecuting its staff.

It was only in 2017, during High Court proceedings brought by a group of more than 500 sub-postmasters, that bosses admitted it was possible – paving the way for convictions to be quashed.

Business and Trade Committee chairman Liam Byrne said he had been “fairly shocked” by the evidence.

‘The whole thing is madness’

The committee also heard from Alan Bates and other campaigners, who were played by well-known actors in the ITV drama about the scandal

They expressed frustration with the pace of the compensation scheme, saying it was “bogged down” by red tape and bureaucracy.

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The real Mr Bates speaks to MPs

Mr Bates said his own process, for what he called “financial redress”, had been beset by delays.

“I think it was 53 days before they asked three very simple questions,” he explained. “It’s madness, the whole thing is madness.

“And there’s no transparency behind it, which is even more frustrating. We do not know what’s happening to these cases once they disappear in there.”

Wrongfully convicted former sub-postmistress Jo Hamilton said it was “almost like you’re being retried … it just goes on and on and on”.

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Donald Trump says he will postpone 50% tariffs on EU until July

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Donald Trump says he will postpone 50% tariffs on EU until July

Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.

It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.

The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.

But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.

Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.

The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.

Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.

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“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.

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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”

On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.

Read more from Sky News:
Gail’s backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron
AA owners line up banks to steer path towards £4.5bn exit

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12 May: US and China reach agreement on tariffs

Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.

Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.

“We stand ready to defend our interests.”

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Gail’s backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron

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Gail's backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron

A backer of Gail’s bakeries is in advanced talks to acquire Flat Iron, one of Britain’s fastest-growing steak restaurant chains.

Sky News has learnt that McWin Capital Partners, which specialises in investments across the “food ecosystem”, has teamed up with TriSpan, another private equity investor, to buy a large stake in Flat Iron.

Restaurant industry sources said McWin would probably take the largest economic interest in Flat Iron if the deal completes.

They added that the two buyers were in exclusive discussions, with a deal possible in approximately a month’s time.

The valuation attached to Flat Iron was unclear on Sunday.

Flat Iron launched in 2012 in London’s Shoreditch and now has roughly 20 sites open.

The chain is solidly profitable, with its latest accounts showing underlying profits of £5.7m in the year to the end of August.

It already has private equity backing in the form of Piper, a leading investor in consumer brands, which injected £10m into the business in 2017.

Flat Iron was founded by Charlie Carroll, who retains an interest in it, but the company is now run by former Byron restaurant boss Tom Byng.

Houlihan Lokey, the investment bank, has been advising Flat Iron on the process.

McWin has reportedly been in talks to take full control of Gail’s while TriSpan’s portfolio has included restaurant operators such as the Vietnamese chain Pho and Rosa’s, a Thai food chain.

A spokesman for McWin declined to comment.

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AA owners line up banks to steer path towards £4.5bn exit

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AA owners line up banks to steer path towards £4.5bn exit

The owners of the AA, Britain’s biggest breakdown recovery service, are lining up bankers to steer a path towards a sale or stock market listing next year which could value the company at well over £4bn.

Sky News has learnt that JP Morgan and Rothschild are in pole position to be appointed to conduct a review of the AA’s strategic options following a recovery in its financial and operating performance.

The AA, which has more than 16 million customers, including 3.3 million individual members, is jointly owned by three private equity firms: Towerbrook Capital Partners, Warburg Pincus and Stonepeak.

Insiders said this weekend that any form of corporate transaction involving the AA was not imminent or likely to take place for at least 12 months.

They added that there was no fixed timetable and that a deal might not take place until after 2026.

Nevertheless, the impending appointment of advisers underlines the renewed confidence its shareholders now have in its prospects, with the business having recorded four consecutive years of customer, revenue and earnings growth.

A strategic review of the AA’s options is likely to encompass an outright sale, listing on the public markets or the disposal of a further minority stake.

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Stonepeak invested £450m into the company in a combination of common and preferred equity, in a transaction which completed in July last year.

That deal was undertaken at an enterprise valuation – comprising the AA’s equity and debt – of approximately £4bn, the shareholders said at the time.

Given the company’s growth and the valuation at which Stonepeak invested, any future transaction would be unlikely to take place with a price of less than £4.5bn, according to bankers.

The AA, which has a large insurance division as well as its roadside recovery operations, remains weighed down by a substantial – albeit declining – debt burden.

Its most recent set of financial results disclosed that it had £1.9bn of net debt, which it is gradually paying down as profitability improves.

AA owners over the years

The company has been through a succession of owners during the last 25 years.

In 1999, it was bought by Centrica, the owner of British Gas, for £1.1bn.

It was then sold five years later to CVC Capital Partners and Permira, two buyout firms, for £1.75bn, and sat under the corporate umbrella Acromas alongside Saga for a decade.

The AA listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2014, but its shares endured a miserable run, being taken private nearly seven years later at little more than 15% of its value on flotation.

Under the ownership of Towerbrook and Warburg Pincus, the company embarked on a long-term transformation plan, recruiting a new leadership team in the form of chairman Rick Haythornthwaite – who also chairs NatWest Group – and chief executive Jakob Pfaudler.

For many years, the AA styled itself as “Britain’s fourth emergency service”, competing with fierce rival the RAC for market share in the breakdown recovery sector.

Founded in 1905 by a quartet of driving enthusiasts, the AA passed 100,000 members in 1934, before reaching the one million mark in 1950.

Last year, it attended 3.5 million breakdowns on Britain’s roads, with 2,700 patrols wearing its uniform.

The company also operates the largest driving school business in the UK under the AA and BSM brands.

In the past, it has explored a sale of its insurance arm, which also has millions of customers, at various points but is not actively doing so now.

By recruiting a third major shareholder last, the AA mirrored a deal struck in 2021 by the RAC.

The RAC’s then owners – CVC Capital Partners and the Singaporean state fund GIC – brought the technology-focused private equity firm, Silver Lake, in as another major investor.

A spokesman for the AA declined to comment on Saturday.

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