Rishi Sunak would “strongly support” the honours forfeiture committee if it decided to review the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells’ CBE after the Horizon scandal, Downing Street has said.
Calls are growing for the former chief executive, who oversaw the organisation while it routinely denied there were problems with its IT system, to hand back her honour after an ITV drama returned the widespread miscarriage of justice to the spotlight.
A petition demanding that the honours forfeiture committee remove Vennells’ CBE over the scandal, which has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, has already attracted more than 1 million signatures.
Sunak’s official spokesperson said the prime minister “shares the public’s feeling of outrage on this issue”, adding: “He would strongly support the forfeiture committee if it chose to review the case. You will know that it is a decision for the committee.”
Earlier, the prime minister said the government “will do everything we can to make this right for all those affected” and was looking at ways of “speeding up” the compensation process. “People should know we are on it and want to make it right,” he added.
His spokesperson hinted that Fujitsu, which provided the faulty accounting software, could be expected to contribute to the compensation bill. “It should not be [taxpayer money] alone which picks up the tab for Horizon compensation,” he said.
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, is meeting the Post Office minister, Kevin Hollinrake, on Monday to discuss how to help the convicted branch managers clear their names, with a statement due in the House of Commons, where they will come under pressure to confirm that convictions will be overturned.
The prime minister, speaking in Accrington, Lancashire, on Monday defended the government’s response but said he wanted to speed up the compensation process for victims.
“People should know that we are on it and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside,” he said. “We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong, what happened. They shouldn’t have been treated like this.”
Vennells, who ran the Post Office while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system, has said she is “truly sorry” for the “suffering” caused to post office operators wrongly convicted of offences.
More than 700 branch managers were convicted after Horizon, a faulty Fujitsu accounting software, made it look as if money was missing from their shops.
This is not the first time Vennells’ CBE has come into question. Hollinrake last month said calls to strip her of the honour should be considered, while the Labour MP Kevan Jones has long backed such a move.
Keir Starmer has called for prosecution powers to be stripped from the Post Office and previous convictions looked at again, amid renewed pressure on the government response to the scandal.
The Labour leader, speaking during a visit in Loughborough, said: “I think that the prosecution should be taken out of the hands of the Post Office and given to the Crown Prosecution Service.
“I used to run the Crown Prosecution Service, we’ve prosecuted for other departments, we can do it here – that should be done straight away. And these convictions, the remaining convictions, need to be looked at en masse.”
He added: “The government could pass legislation, so obviously we’d support that if they did. It might be possible to get these cases back before the court of appeal quickly – I’ve done that when I was a prosecutor – but whichever way it’s done, these convictions need to be looked at.”
Downing Street did not say whether removing prosecution powers would be among the options considered, but Sunak’s spokesperson said ministers were “looking at what went wrong and what lessons can be learned”.
