Sir Ed on rack over claims he met Alan Bates... but only for ‘good publicity’

SIR Ed Davey yesterday claimed he could not have intervened in the Post Office scandal when he was the minister in charge because it meant saying the courts had ‘got it wrong’.

The Liberal Democrat leader was Post Office minister for almost two years between 2010 and 2012 and is under fire for his lack of action.

Correspondence shows he rejected a request to meet campaigner Alan Bates – the central character in the recent ITV drama – as it would not serve ‘any useful purpose’.

New documents reveal he later agreed to meet the former postmaster after officials advised it would help avoid ‘bad publicity’ at a time when the emerging scandal was under investigation by journalists.

Sir Ed was left squirming over the revelations yesterday, claiming that he had been ‘keen’ to meet Mr Bates and ‘hear his concerns’.

He said he had repeated assurances about the Horizon IT system at the heart of the scandal because he had been lied to ‘on an industrial scale’ by Post Office executives, who insisted there was ‘nothing to see here’.

And he suggested he could not act because some postmasters had been convicted by the courts. The Government has pledged to quash these convictions.

The Lib Dem leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today show: ‘To take action, to have an inquiry or whatever would be to say the judges and the lawyers had all got it wrong and we should overturn the decisions.’

Documents released to the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act show Sir Ed was advised to meet Mr Bates for ‘presentational reasons’.

Officials warned that failure to meet him could lead to negative headlines, such as ‘government minister refusing to meet victims’.

Sir Ed insisted the note did not reflect his views at the time.