Post Office boss ‘ bullied female executive’

POST Office boss Nick Read has been accused of bullying and sexism by the firm’s former chairman in the latest twist of their longrunning row.

In a letter published by MPs yesterday, ex-chairman Henry Staunton said CEO Mr Read’s former HR director had given a detailed account of his behaviour which ‘constituted bullying’.

In the letter to the Commons business committee, Mr Staunton said: ‘As the only woman in the senior management team . . . she felt that she was being treated by Read and his henchmen as a “pain in the a**e” for focusing on tackling the toxic culture rather than prioritising Read’s salary.’

He added: ‘She had come to me on numerous occasions for advice on how to deal with Read’s behaviour towards her, which in her, and my, view, constituted bullying.’

Mr Read and Mr Staunton, who was sacked in January by Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, are both under investigation by the Post Office.

Mr Staunton, 75, claimed in his letter that the investigation into him was a ‘sham’ and ‘stitch up’.

He said he believed he had been included in the inquiry because he had ‘asked about the ethnic origin of a candidate’ and said that ‘girls’ were ‘pains in the a***s’.

But he claims that when he made the latter comments, he had been referring to remarks made to him by a senior colleague in a previous role. He said he had questioned candidates’ backgrounds in an attempt to promote diversity.

It comes after a marathon committee session into the Horizon IT scandal last week, when Mr Staunton claimed Mr Read had threatened to resign four times over his ‘too low’ £400,000 salary.

During last week’s hearing, Mr Read appeared to contradict this, saying ‘no’ when asked if he had tried to resign.

In his own letter, Mr Read said: ‘I wanted to clarify in writing my negative response to your question: “Have you ever tried to resign as chief executive of the Post Office?” To reiterate the response I gave on the 27th, I have never tried to resign.’

He added: ‘I have suffered frustrations - many CEOs have conversations privately with appropriate people in their organisation, and I am no different.’