Civil servant denies call to delay Post Office cash

The civil servant at the centre of the Post Office row has hit back against claims that she asked for compensation payments to post office operators to be delayed.

- Eleni Courea

Henry Staunton, the former Post Office chair, claimed Sarah Munby, the former top civil servant at the business department, had suggested they should slow compensation payments and "hobble" to the election.

Staunton's allegations sparked an extraordinary row over how ministers are handling redress for hundreds of post office operators who were wrongfully convicted in what has been called the greatest miscarriage of justice in British history.

In parliament, Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, accused Staunton of lying and seeking revenge for being sacked last month. Rishi Sunak refused to repeat her language at prime minister's questions yesterday.

To support his claims, Staunton produced a contemporaneous note of his conversation with Munby in January 2023. In his note, Staunton said Munby had told him there was no appetite to "rip off the band aid" in terms of government finances and that "we needed a plan to 'hobble' up to the election".