More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE amid growing anger over the Horizon scandal.
Demands for the Honours Forfeiture Committee to remove Ms Vennells CBE have emerged again after ITV aired a new drama into the scandal: Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
The Horizon scandal has been been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history.
Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system.
The petition, which is addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the Forfeiture Committee, says: ‘Evidence has been produced that the Post Office engaged in a mass cover up which led to the wrongful prosecution of 550 Post Office Staff many of whom were subsequently jailed, bankrupted and in some cases, sadly took their own lives.
More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE amid growing anger over the Horizon scandal
‘Having been handed a CBE for services to the Post Office, and moved out into other senior positions in government and healthcare, it is only right that this award is now withdrawn through the process of forfeiture.’
It was revealed in The Guardian yesterday that The Post Office is suspected of dozens more wrongful prosecutions of operators who took part in a ‘pilot scheme’ of the faulty system.
Sources from Whitehall confirmed that a precursor scheme took place between 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England.
The Horizon scandal has been been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history
It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed a report that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is considering ways of helping to clear the names of convicted subpostmasters caught up in the scandal.
More than 700 Post Office branch managers were given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software called Horizon made it appear as though money was missing from their shops.
Reports say Mr Chalk is set to meet with the Minister for the Post Office Kevin Hollinrake on Monday to discuss how to help the convicted branch managers.
There has been fresh public backlash to the scandal after ITV aired a drama starring actor Toby Jones last week about the scandal.
Reports suggest since Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast, 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers.
The Post Office is wholly owned by the Government and a public inquiry into Horizon is ongoing.
Speaking during a visit to Oxford on Sunday, the Prime Minister said the UK Government was ‘keen to do everything we can because this was absolutely appalling’ and should ‘never have happened’.
Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its Horizon IT system
He said: ‘It has been an appalling miscarriage of justice and appalling treatment of all the people affected and it is right that they get the redress that they deserve.
‘That is why the Government has put in place three different compensation schemes that have already paid out almost £150 million to thousands of people who are affected, and are keen to go as quickly as possible.
‘More broadly, the Justice Secretary is also looking at other options for how we can provide support for people.’
On Thursday, Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer resisted to back calls for Ms Vennells to lose her CBE.
Ms Vennells said she was ‘truly sorry’ for the ‘suffering’ caused to subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences.
Scotland Yard said on Friday that officers are ‘investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions’, for example ‘monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions’.
The Metropolitan Police had already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.
The petition, named ‘Post Office Scandal: Strip Paula Vennells of her CBE’ reached one million signatures just after midnight on Monday.
Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster who is referenced in the title of the series, has called for more to be done to help recompense those wrongly given criminal convictions and who had their lives turned upside down.
It comes as Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey came under fresh pressure amid renewed scrutiny of his actions as a government minister.
The Sunday Times published a cache of correspondence between Mr Bates and ex-ministers from the Coalition government – including Sir Ed.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Rishi Sunak revealed the option of exonerating all postmasters was being ‘looked at’ by the Justice Secretary.
Asked if the Government would remove the Post Office’s ability to investigate and prosecute, he said: ‘The Justice Secretary is looking at the things that you’ve described, it wouldn’t be right to pre-empt that process, obviously there’s legal complexity in all of those things but he is looking at exactly those areas.’
Earlier in the programme, Mr Sunak said: ‘Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.’
On the same programme former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was ordered to repay money and legal costs to the tune of £321,000 despite doing nothing wrong, said it had been ‘like a war’ trying to get compensation from the Post Office.
He said: ‘The victims are traumatised. It has been a long time of 25 years and £135 million has been paid to some of the victims, but we have had £150 million-plus paid to lawyers.
‘These lawyers are putting lots of pressure and it is difficult. The schemes are difficult.
‘We are just normal run-of-the-mill people. We have legal people with us but it is so difficult and it is like a war.
‘Why would anybody put the Post Office and DBT (the Department for Business and Trade) in charge of recompensing the victims?’
He added that he felt the compensation scheme for victims should be taken away from the organisations currently running it.