Post Office Inquiry: former postal affairs minister challenged over failure to listen to victims скачать в хорошем качестве

Post Office Inquiry: former postal affairs minister challenged over failure to listen to victims

Former postal affairs minister Pat McFadden has told the Horizon IT inquiry “of course I wish I had done more” to ask the Post Office if the faulty system was “as robust as they suggested”. The Labour MP and current Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster urged the probe not to recommend making ministers “shadow chief executives” to prevent the bosses of state-owned companies going “rogue” following the scandal. Mr McFadden instead said it was worth considering the implementation of an independent body “that can be called in to launch an inquiry or take action when the level of allegations reaches such a point that it looks like that is the right thing to do”. He said ministers “do not intervene in court judgments and cannot overturn court verdicts” after telling the probe the company’s actions resulted in “innocent people being convicted”. Mr McFadden, who was postal affairs minister between 2007 and 2009, said he does not believe he spoke to then business secretary John Hutton about allegations made by subpostmasters about the integrity of the faulty system. He told the inquiry that the “ultimate responsibility” for a state-owned company such as the Post Office lies “with the Government”, but said he does not recall officials telling him that “they thought a miscarriage of justice was under way”. The Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East said he was first made aware that the Post Office was prosecuting subpostmasters for alleged shortfalls at their branches in February 2009. Subscribe to the Evening Standard: https://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-Evening-S... for latest breaking news from the UK, US and around the world, plus podcasts and features. Evening Standard on socials: Check out our full video catalog:    / londoneveningstandard   Videos, daily editorial and more: https://www.standard.co.uk/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.fb.com/eveningstandard Follow us on Twitter:   / eveningstandard   and Instagram:   / evening.standard