Davey refuses to apologise 10 times to sub-postmasters

SIR ED DAVEY has refused to apologise to subpostmasters for his part in the Post Office Horizon scandal.

The Liberal Democrat leader was asked 10 times if he wanted to say sorry during his first sit-down interview since the ITV drama reignited the scandal.

Sir Ed, who was the Post Office minister from May 2010 to February 2012, instead repeatedly expressed “regret” at the affair but did not apologise.

The Liberal Democrat leader has faced criticism since it emerged that he turned down a request to meet campaigner Alan Bates in 2010.

The MP for Kingston and Surbiton told ITV yesterday: “I’ve said time and time again that I deeply regret that I was lied to on an industrial scale and I’m sure that every other Post Office minister who was lied to regrets that they were part of this huge conspiracy that the Post Office perpetrated.”

When he was pressed for an apology to the postmasters, he said: “My heart goes out to the hundreds of people who were hit and I deeply regret that we didn’t get to the bottom of the lies that were told.

“And I deeply regret that it took until 2019 and the High Court case until people got the truth. What we absolutely need to focus in on now is getting that compensation quickly. When you listen to the subpostmasters that’s what they want, they want to make sure that the compensation is there.”

After being asked whether the subpostmasters deserved to hear an apology from him, Sir Ed said: “Well the subpostmasters deserve a huge amount.

“They deserve compensation, they deserve a huge apology from the Post Office, from Fujitsu, and from all the people who led this conspiracy of lies against them and frankly the whole British public.”

Sir Ed has also faced pressure to hand back his knighthood after Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, announced that she would return her CBE earlier this week.

He said that he was “really surprised she got it in the first place” because “the stories were already emerging”.

However, when asked whether he should be held to a similar standard, he said that he was “very proud of his title”.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “Ed’s heart goes out to the victims of this terrible miscarriage of justice. It is the Post Office which owes an apology to the victims for their appalling behaviour and the pain and suffering they caused. Ed’s focus now is on getting justice and compensation as quickly as possible to all those affected.”