Post Office chief executive under investigation, says ex-chair

A public spat between the ousted chair of the Post Office and the UK government descended into further mudslinging on Tuesday after he claimed the state-owned company’s boss was under investigation for misconduct.

Henry Staunton told MPs that chief executive Nick Read was the main focus of an 80-page HR review by the Post Office and had threatened to resign on no less than four occasions over his pay.

Staunton, a City of London veteran who was sacked by business secretary Kemi Badenoch in late January after a little more than a year in the job, had himself been investigated for what he called “politically incorrect” comments.

The House of Commons business and trade select committee hearing painted a picture of what MPs said was a business “in disarray” after it perpetrated one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were convicted in cases involving data from the Post Office’s faulty Horizon IT system following its introduction in 1999, including more than 700 brought by the state-owned company itself.

The government is now pressing ahead with unprecedented legislation to exonerate affected sub-postmasters in England and Wales en masse.

Staunton and Read were appointed after the scandal to rebuild the organisation’s reputation.

Liam Byrne, Labour MP and chair of the committee, said it was now “crystal clear the Post Office board and senior leadership [was] in disarray just at the time we need it focused on delivering justice”.

Jonathan Gullis, a Conservative MP on the committee, said at the hearing that Staunton’s claims about Read had “blown my mind” and that the organisation was an “absolute shambles”.

Staunton has been engaged in a high-profile row with the government in recent weeks after he was abruptly dismissed by Badenoch.

He subsequently claimed in an interview with The Sunday Times that a senior civil servant told him to delay redress payments for victims of the Horizon IT scandal.

Badenoch has accused him of seeking revenge after his dismissal, while the civil servant at the centre of the affair has denied Staunton’s claims.

The committee was told that Staunton blocked an investigation into his own conduct during his time as chair.

Officials said multiple complaints had been raised about Staunton, including that he had sought to bypass a public appointment process for a new board member in favour of an internal hire.

Ben Tidswell, a senior independent director at the Post Office, told MPs he had threatened to resign over Staunton’s behaviour. “If people are not compliant with their duties, they’re accountable and you see that with the departed chairman,” he said.

Staunton previously denied knowledge of the investigation into him but conceded on Tuesday he had been probed over “politically incorrect” comments, adding that he had acted “scrupulously” during the board appointment process.

Turning his fire on Read, Staunton said the Post Office chief executive had fallen out with the company’s HR director who subsequently produced a report documenting examples of misconduct in the organisation.

“This 80-page document was taking a terrible toll on Nick Read. He said ‘I’m not being supported by the board . . . I’m going to resign’,” Staunton told the committee.

Read, appearing earlier at the hearing, said he had never contemplated resigning from his position.

The Post Office said: “Nick Read has at times felt the weight of Post Office’s awful history on his shoulders. It is no surprise, and is entirely appropriate, that he will have discussed this, in confidence, with the former chairman.”

It added that Read had never tendered his resignation.

The Department for Business and Trade confirmed Read was under investigation but did not provide further details.

Read, who was appointed Post Office chief executive in 2019, also denied claims the business had a “toxic culture” after a memo released on Monday revealed that Elliot Jacobs, a board member, had alleged that sub-postmasters were still seen by the company as “guilty” and “on the take”.

The Post Office boss also dismissed Staunton’s allegations about being asked to delay compensation. “I don’t believe it’s true, I don’t believe that’s the case. He’s misinterpreted or perhaps misunderstood the conversation,” he said.