Sir Ed Davey apologises for ‘poorly judged’ refusal to meet Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates 14 years ago

LIB Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has apologised for a “poorly judged” refusal to meet Post Office scandal campaigner Sir Alan Bates 14 years ago.

Sir Ed, postal affairs minister from 2010-12, had told him: “I do not believe a meeting would serve any useful purpose.”

He denied he eventually met Sir Alan in October 2010 due to “presentational reasons” despite a note suggesting it was a consideration.

Sir Ed also told the inquiry into the scandal that he was “lied to” about “serious flaws” in the Horizon IT system, and that “someone senior must have known the truth at some stage”.

The Liberal Democrats MP’s evidence came after the Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster and former postal affairs minister Pat McFadden said “of course I wish I had done more to ask the Post Office if the Horizon system was “as robust as they suggested”.

The Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East urged the probe not to recommend making ministers “shadow chief executives” to prevent the bosses of state-owned companies going “rogue” following the scandal.

Mr McFadden instead said it was worth considering the implementation of an independent body “that can be called in to launch an inquiry or take action when the level of allegations reaches such a point that it looks like that is the right thing to do”.

He said ministers “do not intervene in court judgments and cannot overturn court verdicts” after telling the probe the company’s actions resulted in “innocent people being convicted”.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted due to faulty software from 1999-2015.