Former postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake, who was in post between October 2022 and July 2024 under the previous Conservative government, has apologised for allowing the government to “arm themselves with lawyers” while attempting to sort out redress for victims of the Horizon scandal.
During the recent hearing of the Horizon IT inquiry, Hollinrake gave a scathing assessment of the culture and management of the Post Office, describing it as an “inward looking, poorly led, dysfunctional organisation”. He also stated that the outgoing Post Office chief executive, Nick Read, was “paid lots whilst not doing a very good job”, and that working with him was like “drawing teeth”.
“I worked constructively with Nick Read [but] as time went on I formed the view that [he] was unable to lead the organisation as it needed to be led.
“I thought it right to give him a decent chance to see through reform of the Post Office’s culture. But my view was the guy was being paid lots whilst not doing a very good job.”
Hollinrake also criticised the former chair Henry Staunton, who twice asked the government for Read’s pay to be doubled and was fired in January. He said he concluded that Staunton was “incapable of chairing the organisation”.
Hollinrake listed a number of issues with how the Post Office was run, including the “persistent and aggressive lobbying by the chief executive to significantly increase his remuneration”, as well as Read’s refusal to act to reduce central costs such as senior management headcount.
“I was extremely frustrated by the Post Office’s inability to provide this basic information,” said Hollinrake. “A particular example of this is [Read’s] inability or unwillingness to reduce central costs. It was like drawing teeth. I did not think it was right to give [Read] a big increase.
“My view was that we should not be moved by his threats to leave, and that if he wanted to leave he should leave. His departure will present an opportunity to replace him with a truly exceptional leader, and one who recognises that this is a public service role. The solution is good leadership. Nothing can replace that.”
During Hollinrake’s evidence, inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams said, “It was both the Post Office’s choice and the department’s choice to arm themselves with lawyers. They didn’t have to have a room full of lawyers to argue this out. That was, if I can use the word, your choice. Yours collectively, you understand – so why?”
Hollinrake, who is now the shadow levelling up, housing and communities secretary, responded, “As I say, I don’t think we should do that in the future. I think we should have some independence in the middle of it.”
This comes a day after it emerged that the previous government’s decision to offer £600,000 to wrongly convicted subpostmasters was a “political” decision where Post Office was not consulted.
Simon Recaldin – in charge of overseeing the compensation schemes run by the Post Office - told the public inquiry that the Post Office expects to have paid £650m in financial redress by March next year and that the final bill will be about £1.4bn.
Recaldin was questioned about a government announcement in September last year when ministers revealed that all wrongly convicted subpostmasters would be offered a payment of £600,000 in financial redress. This could be accepted as a final settlement or those affected could continue with a full claim for more. About 900 former subpostmasters and branch staff could be eligible for the payout.
Recaldin said he supports the proposal, but told the inquiry the Post Office was not consulted on the offer. “I think the £600,000 opportunity was brilliant, it was an inspired idea in terms of how to speed up redress,” he said. But he questioned how the policy was “imposed on the Post Office”.
“The government had not consulted the Post Office. I was told about it in a quarterly shareholder meeting and was advised it was going to happen the next day,” he told the inquiry. He said the announcement was “shrouded in secrecy” in terms of its launch with the Post Office expected to operationalise, manage and push the offer through.
