Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has given a statement in the House of Commons to address claims made by the ex-Post Office chairman
Henry Staunton told the Sunday Times that when he was sacked, Badenoch told him: "Someone's got to take the rap"
Staunton also said he was told to delay payouts to Post Office scandal victims, which the government denies
In a strongly worded statement, Badenoch said his claims were a "blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal"
The minister added that £160m in compensation payouts has been made to victims
More than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty computer software calculated that money was missing from branches
Many of those affected were financially ruined, and it has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history
That brings to a close our live coverage of Kemi Badenoch's statement responding to allegations made by former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton.
You can read our full report on the drama in the Commons here.
Editing this page today were Nadia Ragozhina and Johanna Chisholm.
The writers were Emily McGarvey, Jake Lapham, Jacqueline Howard, Krystyna Gajda and Jeremy Culley.
Thank you for joining us.
Image source, PA MediaWe also heard references to the ongoing public inquiry into the Post Office scandal.
Here's a reminder of the details:
It began in February 2021, and is still ongoing.
It’s designed to "ensure a public summary of the failings" and learn lessons from what happened and what went wrong with the Horizon system.
People who have provided evidence include former Post Office investigators, developers from Fujitsu (the Japanese company that created the software) and the company's Europe chief, Paul Patterson.
The inquiry is still yet to hear from figures like sub-postmaster Alan Bates, whose story was the catalyst for the popular ITV drama, and former Post Office boss Paula Vennells.
Phases five and six of the inquiry are set to get underway on 9 April.
Fujitsu has offered its "deepest apologies" to victims of the scandal and has said it would contribute towards compensation payments for those wrongly convicted.
Bosses from the Japanese firm have indicated that they will cooperate fully with the inquiry and wait until it nears its conclusion before working out the appropriate amount.
Image source, ReutersDuring Kemi Badenoch's statement to the Commons earlier and in the discussion that followed, we heard a lot about the compensation scheme for the former sub-postmasters and mistresses.
So what is the compensation scheme, or schemes, and how do they work?
The government announced plans in January to overturn the convictions of more than 900 people linked to the Post Office scandal and more than 4,000 people in total have been told they are eligible for compensation.
But the schemes they need to access in order to receive remuneration for their suffering can be long-winded and complicated.
There isn't a single compensation scheme for sub-postmasters to apply to, and individual eligibility will depend on the particular circumstances of an individual's case.
See how they work in detail here.
Peter Saull
BBC Political Reporter
Politicians of all stripes know the scale of the public outrage on behalf of the sub-postmasters and mistresses.
So Kemi Badenoch’s combative tone is perhaps no surprise.
She is a relative newcomer to the scandal and clearly believes that any criticism of her actions – indirect or otherwise – is unfair.
Her decision to go in two-footed has, though, raised some eyebrows in Westminster.
Some have suggested that her strongly worded statements have amplified the story.
But the business secretary’s style has won her plenty of admirers in the Conservative Party, and it seems unlikely she’ll change her approach any time soon.
Kemi Badenoch issued a very strong response in the Commons just now to the claims made at the weekend by Henry Staunton, going as far as accusing him of a "blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal".
She described his allegations - including that she told him "someone's got to take the rap" for the Horizon scandal - as "completely false".
The BBC has contacted Staunton to see if he has any response to the business secretary's statement.
Faith in the government over a series of scandals is “hanging by a thread” the shadow business secretary said in the Commons this afternoon.
Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s statement over the sacking of Henry Staunton, and his version of events in the Sunday Times, Jonathan Reynolds drew comparisons with Windrush, Hillsborough and Bloody Sunday.
He said the Post Office miscarriage of justice had shown the “devastation that can occur” when institutions operate without oversight and are “shrouded in secrecy”.
Image source, House of CommonsBusiness Secretary Kemi Badenoch's statement in the Commons has now finished, and while her general message is not to believe a word Staunton says, here's a summary of some of the finer points she made today:
Peter Saull
BBC Political Reporter
Kemi Badenoch has a reputation for speaking her mind and to say she lived up to that in the Commons is probably an understatement.
Her tweets at the weekend were spiky enough, but she went one step further at the despatch box, accusing Henry Staunton of a “blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal”.
The business secretary announced that a readout from the call she made to sack him would be published, to back up her version of events.
However, it’s understood that the former Post Office chairman stands by his claims and has his own record of the conversation.
As Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds pointed out, we now have two completely contrasting accounts. And only one can be true.
Just before the proceedings end, the business secretary repeats that the government wants to make sure people get their money as quickly as possible.
It is the right thing that compensation is not delayed, she says.
Labour's Florence Eshalomi is up next and asks Badenoch about the recent closure of Post Office branches across the country.
The MP for Vauxhall asks if the millions of pounds being spent on compensating innocent postmasters may have been better spent trying to keep "vital" individual Post Office branches open.
The business secretary responds saying it should be possible "to do both".
Labour's Stella Creasy is now up.
She rattles off a number of what she describes as scandals, including Grenfell Tower and the infected blood inquiry.
She says in all these cases, it was the compensation schemes themselves that became the story.
Creasy concludes by asking whether an independent body would be best placed to administer compensation schemes.
Badenoch replies that the Horizon scandal started under a Labour government, and she is fixing it.
Labour's Clive Efford was up earlier and was asking about the Post Office's continued involvement in investigations into the scandal.
Is it acceptable, be begins, for the Post Office to still be involved given how discredited they are.
Badenoch replies by saying: "The way we have been dealing with this issue at the dispatch box, the work the inquiry has been carrying out, and our commitment to look at individual cases and ensure the process is working out properly is how postmasters will have confidence in the system."
Image source, UK ParliamentThe business secretary has now finished giving her statement in the House of Commons.
Stay with us as we bring you the remainder of Kemi Badenoch's remarks on the Post Office chair's claims.
Labour MP for Rhondda Chris Bryant presses Badenoch on the process of Staunton's dismissal and asks, did she ring Sky News before ringing him to get them to stop running it, and whether she tried to find out who leaked the story.
He expresses concern that it might have been Badenoch herself who leaked it.
The business secretary says she has evidence she had asked Sky News not to run with the story - and the government has "no idea" how Sky News found out the information.
She says "of course" she didn't leak the story as it could have created a "legal risk" if Staunton had learned of his dismissal on the news before she had spoken to him.
There are thousands of people who work in the government and UKGI, she says, and leaks are severely damaging.
It is very disappointing to see what Staunton did in the Sunday Times, she adds.
Debbie Abrahams MP asks if for "clarity, and to try and draw a line under this and get to the truth", would Badenoch be willing to refer herself to the ethics adviser?
Badenoch says this is a "ridiculous assertion" from "someone who clearly was not listening to the statement".
She says she will be backed up by officials, members of the Post Office board, and newspaper and media outlets "who will know I tried to stop the story".
"The fact is she just wants to believe Mr Staunton's allegations because that helps them politically, but they are not true."
Sammy Wilson from the DUP is now asking about the delivery of compensation, and in particular, whether the best way for the government to respond to Staunton's allegations is to "get on with the job".
Badenoch says 64% of people have received their compensation and she wants people to get the right amount.
She continues that stories like Staunton's in newspapers undermines the work the government is doing.
"I've tried to keep this out of the news," she says.
"We need the media to help us in this and not publish false allegations."
Kate Osborne from the Labour Party is up now and says one of her constituents was affected by the scandal, but has been offered only 13% of her compensation claim.
She asks Badenoch about this, and about a promised new law to swiftly exonerate and compensate victims. She also suggests the government would not be taking the same interest in righting the wrongs if the ITV drama had not aired.
Badenoch addresses that last allegation first - she says the government brought legislation to the House in December and there were "empty benches all opposite" on that day. She says the opposition are the ones who decided to take more of an interest following the drama.
"I will continue, to repeat what I said," she adds: "If people haven't received compensation, we will look at it."
Richard Drax MP is now up and is explaining how a former postmaster in his constituency who was sacked, but not prosecuted, had his life "ruined... many, many years ago". Still, he says, he has not received compensation.
Drax says the man's lawyer tells him the compensation scheme is taking too long, and asks for assurances that "he won't be brushed off financially simply because he wasn't prosecuted".
Badenoch assures the Conservative MP that ministers and officials are working every day, and acknowledges that it "isn't always as quick as people would like but we want to make sure it's done properly".
She says she doesn't have the specific details of that man's case but he can apply to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme and if he brings it to the postal affairs minister "we will look at it specifically".
Badenoch is now responding to a query posed by Derbyshire Dales MP Sarah Dines, who is asking what the Post Office is doing to clean up its act.
The business secretary says that the question emphasises her point that effective leadership is needed, and this underscores why Staunton was dismissed last month.
We need people who care, she says to MPs, before noting that this task has been made harder after Staunton made the decision to take his revenge in the papers.
Labour's Dame Diana Johnson is now on her feet and is attempting to draw a comparison between the Post Office scandal and the infected blood scandal (which you can read about here).
Badenoch rejects the comparison and denies the accusation that the government acted only when it was forced to.
She says the question is "political point scoring".