The chairman of the Post Office has stepped down amid ongoing tensions in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.
Henry Staunton will depart from the role following a phone call with Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch on Saturday.
They agreed to ‘part ways with mutual consent’ and an interim will be appointed ‘shortly’, the Department for Business and Trade said.
Mr Staunton only took up the post at the state-owned company in December 2022, following nine years as chairman of WH Smith.
Sources reportedly claimed this weekend that Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch notified him of the decision via phone call this afternoon, Sky News reported.
Mr Staunton, who became chairman in December 2022, was this weekend told by Kemi Badenoch , the business secretary, that he will be replaced amid growing tension with the government
The Horizon scandal took place between 1999 and 2015 when the Post Office wrongly prosecuted 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses for incorrect data provided by the computer system
Ms Badenoch said she ‘felt there was a need for new leadership’ at the Post Office as it was announced outgoing chairman Henry Staunton was stepping down.
The Business Secretary said: ‘The Post Office is rightfully under a heightened level of scrutiny at this time. With that in mind, I felt there was a need for new leadership, and we have parted ways with mutual consent.’
One insider is said to have claimed there have been a number of tensions between the Post Office chairman and the government in recent months.
The search for a new chairman will come as the government aims to force through legislation that will compensate hundreds of sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences such as fraud.
The government is believed to want to give the role to a Whitehall insider in a bid to strengthen the Post Office’s corporate governance.
Post Office chairman Henry Staunton has been sacked by the Government as fury over the Horizon scandal continues to grow
The Horizon scandal took place between 1999 and 2015 when the Post Office wrongly prosecuted 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses for incorrect data provided by the computer system – or one a week.
While the public inquiry into the scandal has been ongoing since February 2021, it returned to the headlines this year due to a hit ITV dramatisation of the scandal – Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
The drama starred Toby Jones as the titular character Alan Bates, the former postmaster who instigated the court case that led to the ruling that the scandal was a miscarriage of justice.
Elsewhere in the inquiry, a former Post Office investigator said she could not challenge Horizon experts about the system because ‘it didn’t go too well’.
Suzanne Winter was involved in the criminal probes of Belfast subpostmaster Alan McLaughlin and Maureen McKelvey, who was based in Omagh.
Mr McLaughlin was wrongfully convicted of false accounting offences in 2005 following an alleged £10,000 loss at his Brookfield Post Office branch in Tennent Street.
Ms McKelvey reported £30,000 shortfalls in the Horizon system at her branch in Clanabogan and despite eventually being found not guilty, the stress of her five-year wait for the acquittal caused her thyroid to rupture which resulted in major surgery.
The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry heard that investigators such as Ms Winter were ranked from one to five based on their recovery of losses from subpostmasters.
Suzanne Winter (pictured) is a former Post Office investigator and said she couldn’t question Horizon experts
Ms McKelvey (pictured) suffered a thyroid to rupture which resulted in major surgery because of the stress
Speaking about the performance ranking system she and other investigators were judged on while giving evidence on Friday, Ms Winter said: ‘We could see everybody else’s, but… I didn’t go looking to see what is everybody else doing.
‘I was just concerned with what I had been targeted to.’
Ms Winter said she found some statements submitted by Fujitsu staff to assist her investigations ‘hard to follow’.
She said: ‘I did not have access to anyone in Fujitsu, or allowed to have access.
‘I had to put my request through casework if I wanted anything from Fujitsu, and as far as I am aware, casework then dealt with that.
‘About nine years in, our casework team then got a Fujitsu liaison person, and that is the person that we would deal with then if we wanted anything from Fujitsu.’
Counsel to the inquiry Emma Price then asked: ‘Since the statements related to your investigations, did you ever seek clarification in respect of the bits which you found hard to follow?’
Ms Winter replied: ‘No.’
Ms Price continued: ‘Why not?’
Ms Winter responded: ‘Because it seemed to be the technical side – they were being reported as the expert of the computer and you were more or less, in the Post Office where we were, if you challenged anything… you didn’t feel you could challenge anything.’
Raymond Grant (pictured) told the probe he considered William Quarm to still be guilty of stealing money from his Post Office branch in North Uist, Scotland
Ms Price then said: ‘Is there any particular individual or individuals who made that the case?’
The former Post Office investigator replied: ‘No, I wouldn’t say any particular individuals, but you just got the impression that if you started to challenge too much, it didn’t go well.’
It comes after the inquiry heard yesterday that a postmistress who was forced to take £50,000 from her pension during the Horizon Scandal.
Heather Earley opened her Post Office in Mossley, County Antrim, in 2011. She was one of hundreds of Post Office workers who were impacted by the Horizon scandal which incorrectly calculated that money was missing from the stores.
To try and prevent the shortfalls in cash being registered every week by the faulty software, Ms Earley dipped into her pension to cover the losses. This eventually led to the woman from Newtownabbey spending £50,000 of her pension.
On Wednesday, the enquiry heard that another former Post Office investigator still believes a postmaster was guilty of theft despite a court overturning his wrongful conviction.
Raymond Grant told the probe he considered William Quarm to still be guilty of stealing money from his Post Office branch in North Uist, Scotland, but denied that was the reason for not regarding the inquiry as a priority.
Mr Quarm was convicted of embezzlement in 2010 and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
He died two years later at the age of 69 and his conviction was successfully quashed in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh last year.
William Quarm (left) was left a broken man when he was convicted of embezzling tens of thousands of pounds from his Post Office on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides in 2010
Mr Grant pictured outside Aldwych House, central London, after giving evidence to phase four of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry
Mr Grant lamented the fact that ‘there was nobody paying me the salary to do the work that we’re here talking about today’ as he was asked to recall his time at the Post Office.
He said he had to conduct research ‘in my own personal time’ and had ‘spent some time in my sick bed reading’ in preparation for giving evidence to the inquiry.
The probe heard Mr Grant had to be forced to attend on Wednesday as his ‘time was limited’ due to his ’10 to 11-hour’ working days and moving house.
He submitted a ‘minimum’ witness statement that was a little over two pages long – arguing that he was looking after homeless residents in a Christian shelter during December where ‘there are a lot of activities going on’.
Counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC said he would see if the witness could improve on his statement, ‘now that carol services and dog walking are out of the way’.
Mr Staunton had been tasked with leading the board of directors as the business reels from the fallout of what has been described as the UK’s biggest miscarriage of justice.
More than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses were prosecuted by the Post Office after faulty accounting software Horizon made it look as though money was missing from their shops.
The saga prompted an outcry across the country after it was dramatised in the ITV series Mr Bates Vs The Post Office earlier this month.
Hundreds of subpostmasters are awaiting compensation despite the Government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.
Mr Staunton’s departure comes amid frustration in Whitehall over the company’s governance, including a row over the prospective appointment of a new senior independent director, Sky News reported.
The Government reportedly wants to hire a Whitehall insider to the role while Mr Staunton and a number of colleagues are said to have favoured Andrew Darfoor, one of the company’s existing non-executive directors.
Insiders told the outlet that Mr Staunton’s exit was not directly related to the Horizon scandal itself.
A Government spokesperson said: ‘In a phone call earlier today, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and Henry Staunton, chair of Post Office Limited (POL), agreed to part ways with mutual consent.
‘An interim will be appointed shortly and a recruitment process for a new chair will be launched in due course, in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.’