Alan Bates snubs ‘ridiculous’ invite to royal garden party

ALAN BATES and Jo Hamilton snubbed government invitations to a royal garden party, while hundreds of postmasters are still waiting for compensation.

Mr Bates, whose battle for justice against the Post Office inspired the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, branded the invite to Buckingham Palace “ridiculous”.

He said the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) had “shot itself in the foot” with an “attempt at a PR job”.

Several other Horizon scandal victims were invited to the event by email on Wednesday morning. Mr Bates received his invitation on Thursday afternoon.

All were offered two dates in May to choose from and given just 24 hours to respond.

Ms Hamilton, a former sub-postmistress, whose story was also featured in the TV drama, only received her final redress payment from the Government a little over a month ago.

Sharing the letter in which she rejected the invitation, Ms Hamilton, said on X, formerly Twitter, the DBT “still don’t get it” and the department “party on while postmasters wait for the crumbs from their table”.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Bates, 69, said: “It’s ridiculous redressal payment – you had the Post Office shooting itself in the foot on Tuesday and now the DBT shooting itself in the foot.

“I just don’t know what they were thinking, it was clearly an attempt at a PR job.”

Mr Bates said he knew of “around a dozen” former sub-postmasters who had been asked to the party and the invites appeared to be limited to those who had already received a final payment – aside from himself.

He said: “I think I was an afterthought, I think someone panicked and thought they had to invite me.

“But I was never going to accept; if I turned down an OBE, I wasn’t going to attend this.

“How could I accept something like this when so many people are still waiting for financial redress?”

Mr Bates, who was portrayed by Toby Jones in the TV dramatisation, added: “If King Charles is keen to meet me, I’m happy for him to invite me himself – but I’m not going to be a guest of the DBT, while so many are waiting for redress.”

He exclusively revealed to The Telegraph that he had rejected his first offer – which was around a sixth of what he had asked for – last month.

The DBT has been approached for comment.