The daughter of a Post Office victim who was investigated while fighting terminal cancer says it’s time Fujitsu “took responsibility” on compensation.

Katie Watson’s mother Fiona passed away in 2004 less than a year after being forced to admit to stealing from her branch.

During the investigation she was diagnosed with lymphoma.

Ms Watson described it as “cold” and “heartless” to carry on with investigating her mother instead of giving her “a chance” to rest.

“Even if it was a case of ‘go through your treatment and we deal with this on the other side’, there was none of that,” she told Sky News.

What is the Post Office scandal?

Ms Watson added: “If she had been able to fight it properly then she may have had a bit longer… she declined really quickly…she just couldn’t do it anymore.”

IT company Fujitsu developed the faulty accounting software Horizon – which saw hundreds of sub postmasters wrongfully accused of stealing from their Post Offices between 1999 and 2015.

Ms Watson is part of a campaign group called Lost Chances which was set up after Fujitsu said it was “morally obligated” to help victims and their families in January.

Paul Patterson, Fujitsu’s European head, spoke at the Post Office inquiry saying he would “engage” in conversation with sub postmasters and relatives.

He also appeared at a select committee in the same month admitting that the company had a “moral obligation” to contribute towards compensation.

Ms Watson said: “It’s time (Fujitsu) took responsibility and meant it…so far as yet there’s been no action behind it – [Paul Patterson] actually needs to do something.”

Mr Patterson met with sub postmasters and the children of Post Office scandal victims in August.

At the time he spoke to Sky News stating that Fujitsu “will contribute to redress” but that the company’s “common position” was “when the inquiry finishes”.

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The last phase of the inquiry is now drawing to a close – with final submissions held in December.

At his last appearance at the inquiry earlier this month Mr Patterson insisted that the company still “want to engage” but he was “still unclear” on how to help relatives of victims “other than sums of money”.

He promised not to “stay silent” and would explore if Fujitsu is able to “engage” with Lost Chances “before the end of the calendar year”.

The campaign group say their aim is not necessarily just about financial redress but also getting support from Fujitsu in other ways such as establishing a “family fund” to help with things like educational grants and counselling.

After the death of her mother Ms Watson said she was forced to get her first job at 14 years old to “help put food on the table” after her family lost everything.

“We ended up in a caravan – but the caravan site you could only be there for nine months of the year so for three months we were homeless,” she continued.

She added: “I didn’t end up going to college. I missed out on those opportunities – to go to school and have all that childhood.”

Ms Watson now works two jobs, seven days a week.

She said she would “never get back what we lost” but just wanted Fujitsu “to take ownership”.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We apologise unreservedly to victims of the Horizon IT Scandal and their loved ones.

“Post Office today is doing all we can to transform the organisation for the future and support those impacted to find closure, as far as that can ever be possible.”

One of the world’s largest investment groups is in talks to help finance a £550m takeover of The Daily Telegraph by the owner of The New York Sun.

Sky News has learnt that Apollo Global Management, which oversees assets worth $733bn, has been holding initial talks with Dovid Efune and his advisers in recent days about lending part of the money required for the deal.

Banking sources said on Tuesday that the discussions were preliminary in nature and might not lead to an agreement.

Other debt providers are also in talks with Mr Efune, the sources added.

The development has emerged just three days before an exclusivity period for the US-based businessman expires, although insiders say it is almost certain to be extended.

Apollo ranks among the world’s biggest financial institutions and is a major player in both private equity and private credit around the globe.

In the last fortnight, a string of media reports have cast doubt on Mr Efune’s ability to complete the deal, with potential lenders including Oaktree Capital Management and Hudson Bay Capital said to have withdrawn from the process.

Sky News revealed at the start of November that the former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and the party’s former treasurer, Sir Mohamed Mansour, had been enlisted by Mr Efune to aid his bid for the right-leaning newspapers.

Mr Zahawi, who has been tipped for a peerage in Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list, and Sir Mohamed are expected to invest tens of millions of pounds in the deal if it goes ahead.

In September, Sky News revealed that Sir Mohamed had been approached to provide as much as £150m to a standalone bid for the Telegraph titles that were being spearheaded at the time by Mr Zahawi.

If completed, the transaction will crystallise an unlikely profit for RedBird IMI, the Abu Dhabi-backed vehicle which paid £600m to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine.

Depending on the final structuring of the deal, it could be worth as much as £575m, with less than a third of that expected to be in the form of debt.

The Spectator was recently sold for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire, who has installed Michael Gove, the former cabinet minister, as its editor.

Insiders said that Mr Zahawi was likely to be handed an ongoing role at the Telegraph if the bid from Mr Efune was successful.

The former chancellor, education secretary and vaccines minister has been involved in the Telegraph process in various guises, initially helping broker a deal with RedBird IMI before assembling his own offer.

He has close connections to many of the Gulf-based figures involved in the process, including Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, chairman of the bidding vehicle.

Mr Zahawi has also since been named chairman of Very Group, the online retailer owned by the Barclay family which controlled the Telegraph for two decades, and which is now part-funded by IMI.

The UAE-based IMI, which is controlled by the UAE’s deputy prime minister and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, extended a further £600m to the Barclays to pay off a loan owed to Lloyds Banking Group, with the balance secured against other family assets.

Mr Efune’s bid has raised the extraordinary possibility of a return to the British newspaper group for Conrad Black, its former proprietor, Sky News reported earlier in the autumn.

Other bidders for the Telegraph included National World, the London-listed vehicle headed by former Mirror newspapers chief David Montgomery, and Lord Saatchi, the former advertising mogul, who offered £350m.

Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail proprietor, pulled out of the bidding earlier in the summer amid concerns that he would be blocked on competition grounds.

The Telegraph auction is being run by Raine Group and Robey Warshaw, the advisers to the Abu Dhabi-backed entity which was thwarted in its efforts to buy the media titles by a change in ownership law.

Apollo declined to comment.

Vauxhall will close its Luton plant in April, the parent company Stellantis announced.

More than 1,100 jobs at the van-making factory are at risk, but Stellantis said it is hoping to transfer “hundreds” of Luton jobs to the group’s Vauxhall site in Ellesmere Port.

It is now in consultation with unions and employees over the proposals, which will also see it invest £50m into the Ellesmere Port factory.

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The company said it would offer “relocation support” and “an attractive package” to sacked employees who want to transfer to Ellesmere Port in the North West of England from Luton, north of London.

The closure had been warned of by the company’s managing director Maria Grazia Davino. In June she told an industry event, “Stellantis production in the UK could stop”, as more needs to be done to spur consumer demand for electric vehicles.

An industry-wide phenomenon

It is the second British car producer to announce job losses in less than a week. Just six days ago Ford revealed plans to cut 800 roles in the UK as part of a cull of 4,000 jobs across Europe.

Pressures have been on UK car makers to meet the government’s electric car mandate with talks on the 2030 deadline taking place between government and industry.

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Financial penalties are currently levied against manufacturers if zero-emission vehicles make up less than 22% of all sales. This will rise to 80% of all sales by 2030 and 100% by 2035.

Across Europe, the automotive sector has been feeling the pressure of slowed sales and competition from China. On Friday, Bosch – the world’s biggest car parts supplier – reported the loss of 5,500 jobs, predominantly in Germany.

A government spokesperson said: “We have a longstanding partnership with Stellantis and we will continue to work closely with them, as well as trade unions and local partners on the next steps of their proposals.

“The government is also backing the wider industry with over £300m to drive uptake of zero-emission vehicles and £2bn to support the transition of domestic manufacturing.”