Rishi Sunak declines to back under fire Post Office boss Nick Read
Rishi Sunak has declined to say whether he has confidence in the chief executive of the crisis-hit Post Office, Nick Read, following confirmation of an investigation into his conduct.
The issue was put to him at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons after news of the probe was explosively revealed on Tuesday by ex-chairman Henry Staunton in evidence to a committee of MPs.
Mr Staunton divulged that it was the culmination of an 80-page report by a former head of human resources at the Post Office, as he maintained a war of words with the government and his former employer over events leading up to his own dismissal.
In answer to the confidence question over Mr Read, Mr Sunak replied: “It would clearly be inappropriate for me to comment on an investigation before it has been completed.
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“Our focus remains working closely with the Post Office to ensure it delivers justice for postmasters caught up in this historic scandal and that is why we will imminently bring forward legislation that we promised.”
On Tuesday, asked if the government and Number 10 had confidence in Mr Read, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “Yes.”
The Post Office is in meltdown over the historic Horizon IT system scandal that saw more than 700 subpostmasters prosecuted by the Post Office and resulted in criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015.
Faulty software, designed by Japanese giant Fujitsu, had made it look as though money was missing from their branches.
While all parties involved in the process have publicly admitted that the focus should be on securing financial redress for the victims, progress has proved slow and become overshadowed this week by squabbling between key figures.
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Post Office redress delay overshadowed by executive drama
Mr Staunton, fired by business secretary Kemi Badenoch in late January, had claimed this month that he had been told by a senior civil servant to go slow in processing subpostmaster compensation claims in the run-up to the general election.
The civil servant involved and the government have denied that was the case but he maintained that position under questions from the business and trade committee of MPs, saying he had been made the victim of a “smear campaign”.
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake told MPs on Wednesday that he “strongly rejected” the allegations, and described Mr Staunton’s decision to reveal details of the investigation into Mr Read as “highly unprofessional”.
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Staunton says investigation was made into Nick Read
During an urgent question on the Post Office board and governance, Mr Hollinrake said: “The fact that Nick Read is being investigated is evidence that no one is untouchable and the Post Office culture is changing.
“An investigation is of course not evidence that allegations are accurate. While Nick Read has co-operated fully, Mr Staunton tried to block investigations looking into his conduct, it was this action as well as his attempt to bypass formal process to appoint a new director to the board, which led the secretary of state (Ms Badenoch) to lose confidence in Mr Staunton.”
Mr Staunton had also told MPs on Tuesday that Mr Read had warned he was going to resign because he was “unhappy with his pay”.
Mr Hollinrake said in the Commons that, while in post, Mr Staunton had urged ministers to double Mr Read’s pay to prevent him quitting.
“I think on two occasions Mr Staunton sought to lobby or did lobby for a pay increase for Mr Read,” he said.
“He sought to double the overall package of Mr Read on those occasions.”
A millionaires’ playground, Poole in Dorset boasts some of the most expensive properties in the UK, and has been called Britain’s Palm Beach.
Away from the yachts and the mansions of Sandbanks, however, Poole is also a beer drinkers’ paradise, with 58 pubs in the parliamentary constituency alone.
But now many of Dorset’s pub landlords have joined a bitter backlash against rises in business rates of up to £30,000 in Rachel Reeves’s November budget.
Across the UK, it is claimed up to 1,000 publicans have even banned Labour MPs from their pubs, after the chancellor axed a 40% rates discount, introduced during COVID, from next April.
The row over the rises, brewing since the budget, came to a head in a clash between Kemi Badenoch and Sir Keir Starmer in the final Prime Minister’s Questions of 2025.
“He gave his word that he would help pubs,” said the Tory leader.
“Yet they face a 15% rise in business rates because of his budget. Will he be honest and admit that his taxes are forcing pubs to close?”
The PM replied that the temporary relief introduced during COVID – a scheme the Conservatives put in place and Labour supported, he said – had come to an end.
“But it was always a temporary scheme coming to an end,” he said.
“We have now put in place a £4bn transitional relief.”
Mark and Michael Ambrose, father and son co-landlords of The Barking Cat, said the increases are a ‘pub destroyer’
But in the Barking Cat Ale House in Poole, facing an increase in business rates of nearly £9,000 a year, the father and son co-landlords fear the rises could mean last orders for many pubs.
“We’re sort of in the average area at 157%, but we’ve got a lot of local pubs that are increasing by 600%, and another one by 800%,” Ambrose senior, Mark, told Sky News.
“It’s a pub destroyer. Pubs can’t survive these kinds of increases. It’s not viable. Most pubs are just about scraping by anyway. If you add these massive increases your profit margins are wiped out.
“We struggle as it is. You can’t have that kind of increase and expect businesses to succeed.
“Fortunately, the customers understand. But they still don’t want to have to spend an extra 30 or 50 pence a pint.”
Son Michael added: “It’s all back to front. It’s really these bigger pub companies and supermarkets that need to be facing increased taxes. We can’t handle them. They can.”
Michelle Smith, landlady of the Poole Arms, the oldest pub on the town’s quay, dating back to 1635, said: “Our rates per value is due to go up £9,000 in April, so it’s quite a deal.”
Michelle Smith, landlady of The Poole Arms, said all her prices are going up
“And we had a rates increase just gone as well,” she added. “So our rates had already increased over £1,000 a month last April. So another hit is quite considerable really.
“Prices definitely have to go up with all the different price increases that we’ve got throughout: business rates, wage increases, the beer goes up from the breweries. Everything is going up.”
Backing the publicans, Neil Duncan-Jordan, who became Poole’s first ever Labour MP last year, has written to the chancellor demanding a rethink. He said he is prepared to vote against the tax rise in the Commons.
“They’ve got to listen,” he told Sky News.
“They’ve got to listen to the high street, to publicans, people who run social clubs and listen to problems that they’re facing and the impact that these changes have made.”
Mr Duncan-Jordan said he was prepared to support an amendment to the Finance Bill, which turns the budget into law and had its second reading in the Commons last week.
Despite being suspended for four months for rebelling against welfare cuts earlier this year, he said: “I was discussing this with some MPs just this morning and I’ll be happy to support those. Sometimes you just have to say what you think is right.”
As chancellor, Ms Reeves has regularly raised a glass to pubs and promised to protect them from rising costs.
But Sir Keir has faced the wrath of a publican before, when he was thrown out of a pub in Bath during COVID by an anti-lockdown landlord.
This time, without a U-turn by the chancellor on the business rates increases, pub landlords fear the government has them over a barrel.
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