Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates has blamed government “flimflam artists” for dragging out financial redress for victims.

In a newsletter, seen by Sky News, he criticises the GLO (Group Litigation Order) scheme for being a “gravy train” for government lawyers.

He adds it is “seemingly to ensure maximum income for the lawyers and minimal settlement for the victims”.

He continues: “I have come to the conclusion that the department is run by government-employed flimflam artists, whose only role is to draw out the GLO Scheme, and probably the other schemes, and spin the narrative then bury it in bureaucracy.”

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “It isn’t acceptable that sub-postmasters feel they aren’t being listened to or have their claims drawn out. Our ministers will continue to meet with those affected and work with them to get swift and fair redress paid.”

“Since July we have taken swift action to launch the new Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme and announced a new appeals process in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme in order to speed up payments further.

“At the end of August, the GLO scheme had made offers to 253 people – over 80% of them have accepted, and more are still considering.

“We are making 90% of initial offers within 40 working days of receiving completed claims and we encourage the 229 people who have not yet sent us complete claims to come forward as soon as possible to can claim back what they are owed.”

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There has been no change to the UK interest rate despite the US and European central banks all moving to cut in the last week.

The Bank of England has kept the interest rate at 5% as official figures this week showed some measures of price rises grew.

It follows the first cut in more than four years.

The rate set by the Bank impacts how much lenders charge to borrow money, so it affects how expensive mortgages or credit card bills are.

But there was no consensus on the decision. One of the nine rate decision-makers voted for a cut.

There were signals of the Bank’s direction of travel from governor Andrew Bailey.

Where to next?

If the economy continues to progress in line with its expectations “we should be able to reduce rates gradually over time”, he said.

But, he said, “we need to be careful not to cut too fast or by too much”.

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Market expectations are currently for a cut at the next meeting in November followed by a further one in December.

The latest forecasts from the Bank are for inflation to rise again, reaching 2.5% by the end of the year.

How did we get here?

Interest rates were brought to a high last seen during the 2008 global financial crash in an effort to bring down spiralling inflation.

More expensive borrowing can choke economic demand and slow price rises.

The Bank is tasked with bringing inflation down to 2%. It currently stands at 2.2%.

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, brought interest rates down by 0.5 percentage points to 4.75% to 5% on Wednesday and the European Central Bank (ECB) reduced borrowing costs last week to 3.5%.

Unlike the UK, the US interest rate is a range to guide lenders rather than a single percentage.

Reaction

Sterling strengthened, following the news and against a weakened dollar a pound bought $1.33, the highest amount in more than two years.

Slowly does it.

That’s the overarching message to take away from the Bank of England‘s latest monetary policy decision. Unlike the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, which decided yesterday to cut interest rates by half a percentage point – more than many had expected – the Bank wanted to signal today that it’s in no rush.

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Alongside the decision to leave borrowing costs on hold at 5%, the Bank’s governor also signalled that he and the rest of the Monetary Policy Committee were in no rush to cut them again. Provided there aren’t any inflation surprises, he said, “we should be able to reduce rates gradually over time”. He added: “But it’s vital that inflation stays low, so we need to be careful not to cut too fast or by too much.”

Even so, the Bank is expected to carry on cutting rates in the coming months. Indeed, economists think the Bank will cut rates in November by at least a quarter percentage point, followed by more cuts next year, taking borrowing costs down towards 3% by next summer.

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That’s largely because inflation is now considerably lower than in recent years, and because there is evidence that high interest rates are starting to weigh down economic activity. The longer those rates stay high, the bigger the depressive impact they have on the UK.

But that raises another issue. For some economists, the Bank of England’s gradualist approach is dangerous. They worry that higher rates, which deter companies and individuals from spending and investing, are causing unnecessary damage.

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That helps explain why one of the MPC members, Swati Dhingra, voted to reduce rates at this meeting.

But the rest of the committee was of one mind – no point in rushing.

Whether they are right is something we’ll find out in the coming months.