Keegan says husband will go to Horizon inquiry if asked

GILLIAN KEEGAN has promised her husband will give evidence to the Post Office inquiry if asked.

Michael Keegan is a former head of Fujitsu, the Japanese company that made the faulty accounting software which led to hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongly convicted of fraud.

After leaving Fujitsu in 2018 Mr Keegan went on to a role at the Cabinet Office, where he oversaw the state’s relationship with BAE Systems.

He stepped down last month amid outcry over the Horizon scandal following the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which follows a two-decade campaign for justice led by Alan Bates.

Asked by LBC’S Nick Ferrari, the Secretary of State for Education said: “He has said he would give evidence. Actually, the stage of the inquiry that they are at now, they’ve just published a list, I think, of 68 people who they think can answer the questions for the governance and everything that happened, and he’s actually not on that list.

“So they haven’t asked him. But he would, absolutely.” Asked why Mr Keegan had given up his Cabinet Office role, the Chichester MP said: “He’s doing a PHD. That’s his main thing, and he’s getting to the sort of final bit of it, and that’s what his passion is.”

Mr Keegan is studying a doctorate in war studies at King’s College London, where he recently completed a Masters.

His profile on the university website says his thesis is on re-assessing Adm Sir Roger Keyes, who was involved in failed operations against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

Mr Keegan has denied wrongdoing and said that the only decision he made on Horizon was to cancel a tender for a new version of the software.

He has also insisted he only ever had one conversation with Paula Vennells, the shamed former Post Office boss, and that the pair never discussed the issue.

The fourth out of six phases of the inquiry is now “substantially” complete, but evidence is yet to be heard from a small number including Gareth Jenkins. Mr Jenkins was instrumental in developing the software.