Henry Staunton: Former Post Office chairman investigated over bullying before dismissal, Kemi Badenoch claims
Kemi Badenoch has said former Post Office chair Henry Staunton was being investigated over bullying allegations before his dismissal – as she accused him of seeking “revenge” against the government.
The business secretary told the Commons that allegations regarding Mr Staunton’s conduct, including “serious matters such as bullying”, were being examined and concerns had also been raised about his “willingness to co-operate” with the formal investigation.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Badenoch said: “Mr Staunton claimed that I told him that someone’s got to take the rap for the Horizon scandal and that was the reason for his dismissal,” she said. “That was not the reason at all.
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“I dismissed him because there were serious concerns about his behaviour as chair, including those raised from other directors on the board.
“My department found significant governance issues, for example, with the recruitment of a new senior independence director to the Post Office board.”
But shortly after Ms Badenoch made her statement, a spokesperson for Mr Staunton released a fresh statement hitting back at the “astonishing” claims, saying it was the “first time the existence of such allegations have been mentioned”.
“Mr Staunton is not aware of any aspect of his conduct which could give rise to such allegations,” they added.
“They were certainly not raised by the secretary of state at any stage and certainly not during the conversation which led to Mr Staunton’s dismissal. Such behaviour would in any case be totally out of character.”
The heated exchange came after Mr Staunton, who was dismissed from his post last month, claimed in an interview with The Sunday Times that he was told to delay pay-outs to sub-postmasters ahead of the next general election due to concerns about costs.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Badenoch said the claim was “completely false” and accused Mr Staunton of seeking “revenge” after he was sacked.
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Henry Staunton
‘Pretty obvious to everyone’
Mr Staunton stood by his claims about stalled compensation this evening and earlier told Sky News it “pretty obvious what was really going on” following the government denials.
Mr Staunton said there was “no real movement” on the payouts until after the airing of the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office earlier this year.
He added: “It was in the interests of the business, as well as being fair for the postmasters, that there was faster progress on exoneration and that compensation was more generous, but we didn’t see any real movement until after the Mr Bates programme.
“I think it is pretty obvious to everyone what was really going on.”
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But Ms Badenoch told MPs this afternoon there was “no evidence whatsoever that this is true”.
“For Henry Staunton to suggest otherwise, for whatever personal motives, is a disgrace and it risks damaging confidence in the compensation schemes that ministers and civil servants are working so hard to deliver,” she said.
“I would hope that most people reading the interview in yesterday’s Sunday Times would see it for what it was: a blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal.”
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Post Office scandal: New concerns
As the war of words between the pair ramped up, opposition parties demanded the government release all documents relating to Mr Staunton’s sacking to provide clarity on the allegations.
In his interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Staunton claimed that when he was sacked Ms Badenoch had told him “someone’s got to take the rap” for the Post Office scandal – and that he was offered no apology for learning about his dismissal from Sky News.
A readout of a call between the pair, seen by Sky News, shows that Ms Badenoch did apologise, but only for the call being at short notice.
‘Truly shocking’
As well as denying the claims, the business department also published a letter sent to Mr Staunton after his appointment which said one of his priorities should be to resolve historic litigation issues relating to the Horizon software.
However, Labour described the allegations were “truly shocking” and said there were “clear discrepancies” in the accounts of Mr Staunton’s short time as chairman.
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Post Office accused of cover-up
Mr Staunton became chairman of the Post Office in December 2022, but he was ousted last month as the government reeled from the backlash of its handling of the Horizon scandal.
This saw hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted because of discrepancies in the Horizon IT system between 1999 and 2015, in what has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
The airing of Mr Bates Vs The Post Office last month led to widespread outrage and promises from the government to introduce a new law to exonerate all victims and speed up the compensation process.
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Appearing opposite Ms Badenoch in the Commons, shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the revelations in The Sunday Times “could not be more serious”.
He singled out the claim that the Post Office was “instructed to deliberately go slow on compensation payments” to wrongly convicted sub-postmasters to save the government money ahead of an election.
He added it would be a “further outrageous insult to a scandal that has already rocked faith in the fairness of the British state”, if true.
Mr Staunton claimed he received the direction from a senior figure in Whitehall, but a spokesman for the government said on Sunday it “utterly” rejected the claim and said Mr Staunton was given “concrete objectives” to focus on reaching settlements.
Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, is to be named as chairman of one of Britain’s biggest online retailers, days after confirming that he would step down from parliament at the next general election.
Sky News has learnt that Mr Zahawi is to be appointed non-executive chair of Very Group, the largest remaining part of the Barclay family’s business empire.
Sources said the appointment, which will see him replacing interim chair Aidan Barclay, would be announced on Monday.
His arrival at Very Group will come during a period of turbulence for the Barclay family, who own The Daily Telegraph but are unable to exert influence over it under a government order while its future ownership remains uncertain, subject to a forthcoming auction.
Mr Zahawi’s appointment at Very Group, first revealed by Sky News in March, is likely to prompt a search for fresh equity investment in the near term, as well as a broader review of its capital structure.
The company, which owns the Very and Littlewoods brands, is weighed down by debt, but has nearly 4.5 million customers and significant expansion targets.
Based in Liverpool, it sells electrical goods, homewares and fashion, backed by a large consumer finance arm.
It is said to have performed resiliently despite uncertainty over its ownership.
The company recently said it had secured £125m of new debt funding from Carlyle Global Credit and IMI, which the company has said is designed to support future growth.
Mr Zahawi, the MP for Stratford-on-Avon since 2010, had a brief stint as chancellor of the exchequer, while he also held ministerial posts at the Department of Health and Social Care – where he oversaw the vaccine rollout during the COVID pandemic – the Department for Business and as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
He was made Conservative Party chairman by Rishi Sunak but was dismissed for failing to disclose he was being investigated by HMRC and the National Crime Agency over a multi-million pound tax dispute related to the sale of shares in his polling firm YouGov while he was chancellor.
He said he had made a “careless and not deliberate” error after initially saying he had no knowledge of the investigation and had “paid all taxes”.
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Mr Zahawi’s announcement last week that he would not stand again at the next election meant he joined the likes of Theresa May, the ex-prime minister, and former Conservative Party chairman Sir Brandon Lewis in deciding to leave parliament.
Prior to his political career, he was the founder of YouGov, while he is now a patron of the Adam Smith Institute, the economic thinktank.
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Mr Zahawi has been playing a role as an intermediary between the Barclay family and the Abu Dhabi-based investor IMI Investments since its interest in participating in a bid for The Daily Telegraph emerged last summer.
He had been tipped to chair the newspaper group if RedBird IMI, a vehicle fronted by former CNN president Jeff Zucker, had been successful in buying it.
However, a fierce backlash from Conservative parliamentarians prompted Downing Street to intervene and amend legislation to prohibit ownership of British newspaper titles by investors connected to a foreign state.
RedBird IMI is now finalising preparations to conduct a further auction of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine.
The Barclays, who used to own London’s Ritz hotel, have already lost control of several of their corporate assets.
In February, Yodel Group, their parcel delivery business, narrowly averted insolvency when it was sold to a consortium backed by executives at Shift, a rival.
The parent company of ArrowXL, another delivery firm they own, had been forced into administration by HSBC, its principal lender.
Half of the £1.2bn loan that the Barclays took from RedBird IMI and IMI was secured against their media assets, with the bulk of the remainder said to have been secured against other assets including Very Group.
At various points in the last decade, the Telegraph proprietors have explored a sale of the online shopping business, having valued it at over £3bn.
Very Group and Mr Zahawi both declined to comment.
The major backer of Pinewood Studios is among the suitors vying to buy Village Hotels, one of Britain’s biggest mid-market hotel chains.
Sky News understands Aermont, which specialises in real estate-backed investments, submitted an offer last week for Village Hotels, which is owned by KSL Capital Partners.
City sources said KSL was seeking offers worth in the region of £850m or more.
A number of other parties are also understood to have tabled bids ahead of a deadline last week.
Blackstone, the giant private equity firm, is considering making an offer but has yet to do so, according to insiders.
The auction is being handled by bankers at Morgan Stanley.
It comes months after attempts to sell Center Parcs UK were called off, while a mooted sale of Travelodge has so far failed to result in a deal.
Village Hotels comprises a portfolio of more than 30 properties from Aberdeen to Bournemouth, with rooms available at budget prices.
Founded in 1995 as Village Urban Resorts, the hotels feature pub-style restaurants and gyms.
KSL was reported to have paid £485m for the business when it bought it in 2014 from De Vere Group.
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The Denver, Colorado-based buyout firm has also owned other UK hotel chains including Hotel du Vin and Malmaison.
Aermont and Blackstone declined to comment.
Henry Birch, the former boss of Rank Group, is among the candidates vying to run Entain, the FTSE-100 owner of Ladbrokes.
Sky News has learnt that Mr Birch is one of a small number of candidates being considered by Entain to replace Jette Nygaard-Andersen as its permanent chief executive.
The recruitment process comes at a challenging time for Entain, which has been beset by boardroom upheaval and regulatory difficulties in various international markets.
Its stock has halved in the last year, leaving it with a market capitalisation of just under £5bn.
This weekend, sources close to the company confirmed that Mr Birch was a serious contender for the post, although they said others were also in contention.
An appointment could still be weeks or even a small number of months away, they added.
Henry Birch, former CEO of Very Group
Mr Birch stepped down as chief executive of Very Group, the online retailer owned by the Barclay family, in 2022.
He is an experienced gambling industry executive, having spent four years as chief executive of William Hill Online prior to joining the London-listed multichannel gaming operator Rank Group.
He has also held roles at Leisure & Gaming plc and BettingCorp.
Under Mr Birch, Very Group broke the £2bn annual sales mark for the first time.
Investors in Entain have been pressing its board to recruit a new chief executive with substantial gambling experience as it grapples with a plunging share price and numerous regulatory and strategic challenges.
Last week, Sky News revealed that former bosses of bookies Coral and Skybet had rejected overtures to become its new boss.
Pic: Reuters
Industry sources said that Dan Taylor, chief executive of Flutter Entertainment’s international operations, had also been approached, although it was unclear whether he was interested.
Entain has been under siege from activist investors for months.
In January, it announced that Ricky Sandler, who runs Entain shareholder Eminence Capital, would join its board as a non-executive director.
Last month, it said that Barry Gibson, its chairman, would retire later this year and be replaced by interim chair, and former acting CEO, Stella David.
Entain has hired bankers to sell PartyPoker and other non-core operations, which the Financial Times reported could include Netherlands-based BetCity, which Entain bought for £398mn last year.
As well as Ladbrokes, Entain owns Coral and a stake in BetMGM, a major US betting player.
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MGM Resorts, the US casino operator behind the Bellagio in Las Vegas, attempted to buy Entain in 2021 but was rebuffed at a much higher valuation than the UK company’s shares trade at now.
MGM has since ruled out a further bid, although analysts expect it to return at some stage.
The company has faced a deluge of regulatory problems, triggering sharp criticism of its governance and business practices.
Last December, it was ordered to pay £615m for failing to prevent bribery at its former Turkish subsidiary under a deferred prosecution agreement.
Shares in Entain closed at 778.8p on Friday, giving the company a market capitalisation of £4.98bn.
Entain declined to comment, while Mr Birch could not be reached for comment.
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