Sub-postmasters: if Mr Staunton’s claim is correct, then the Tory government has been lying about wanting to do right by them.

The now-former chairman of Post Office Ltd has claimed the government asked him to “stall” payouts to sub-postmasters so they could “limp” into the next general election with “the lowest possible financial liability”.

The Sunday Times seemed to have the story first:

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Here’s a snippet from that story:

This Writer couldn’t find the Sunday Times piece online but this is from the GB News version of the same story:

The former chairman went on to allege that he was instructed by a senior civil servant to stall on compensation payments to the Horizon victims so that the government could “limp into the election” later this year with the lowest possible financial liability.

He told the Times: “Early on, I was told by a fairly senior person to stall on spending on compensation and on the replacement of Horizon, and to limp, in quotation marks — I did a file note on it — limp into the election.

“It was not an anti-postmaster thing, it was just straight financials.

“I didn’t ask, because I said, ‘I’m having no part of it – I’m not here to limp into the election, it’s not the right thing to do by postmasters.’ The word ‘limp’ gives you a snapshot of where they were.”

Badenoch’s department have denied the claims and referred to the conversation as “simply incorrect”.

That’s all very well.

But here’s a little lateral thinking on the subject:

That seems to be the size of it.

But I’m curious as to the meaning of this idea that the Tory government would be going into the next election with the “lowest possible financial liability”.

It isn’t as though the Tories would be paying from party funds, making them less able to campaign.

So what’s the fuss about?

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