Close Menu
Graeme DeyGraeme Dey
  • News
    • Angus South
    • Holyrood
    • Westminster
    • Education
  • About
    • Graeme Dey MSP
    • GDPR
      • Privacy Policy
      • Child Data Protection
      • Cookies
  • Surgeries
  • Issues
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
    • Law & Order
    • Social Security
    • Transport
    • Devolved and Reserved Powers
  • Gallery
    • 2021 –
      • 2024
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
    • 2016 – 2020
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
    • 2011 – 2015
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • 2012
      • 2011
  • Videos
    • Members’ Business
    • Questions
      • First Minister’s Questions
      • General Questions
      • Portfolio Questions
      • Topical Questions
  • Contact
    • Contact Graeme
    • Generic Consent Form
    • NHS Consent Form
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
Saturday, June 14
Graeme DeyGraeme Dey
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
  • News
    1. Angus South
    2. Holyrood
    3. Westminster
    4. Education
    5. View All

    Expanding Access to Childcare

    13th June 2025

    Welcoming the funding boost for Appetite for Angus, led by Angus Farmers Market

    9th June 2025

    Supporting Small Food & Drink Businesses

    4th June 2025

    Funding for Angus Climate Action Hub

    30th May 2025

    Scotland’s unpaid carers over Ā£4,400 better off

    12th June 2025

    Care Reform (Scotland) Bill passed

    11th June 2025

    First Minister: Strengthening ties with EU more important than ever

    11th June 2025

    Marine Fund Scotland 2025-26 Launches

    10th June 2025

    Spending Review presents challenges

    12th June 2025

    Call for National Mission on Living Standards

    23rd May 2025

    Labour immigration policy threatens Scotland’s NHS

    13th May 2025

    Minister condemns ā€˜devastating’ UK migration proposals

    12th May 2025

    Education Secretary visits University of Dundee

    15th April 2025

    Improving outdoor play

    24th March 2025

    Widening Access to University Education

    20th March 2025

    £4,900+ a Year for Student Carers

    20th March 2025

    Expanding Access to Childcare

    13th June 2025

    Scotland’s unpaid carers over Ā£4,400 better off

    12th June 2025

    Spending Review presents challenges

    12th June 2025

    Care Reform (Scotland) Bill passed

    11th June 2025
  • About
    • Graeme Dey MSP
    • GDPR
      • Privacy Policy
      • Child Data Protection
      • Cookies
  • Surgeries
  • Issues
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
    • Law & Order
    • Social Security
    • Transport
    • Devolved and Reserved Powers
  • Gallery
    • 2021 –
      • 2024
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
    • 2016 – 2020
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
    • 2011 – 2015
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • 2012
      • 2011
  • Videos
    • Members’ Business
    • Questions
      • First Minister’s Questions
      • General Questions
      • Portfolio Questions
      • Topical Questions
  • Contact
    • Contact Graeme
    • Generic Consent Form
    • NHS Consent Form
Graeme DeyGraeme Dey
You are at:Home»Westminster»Westminster Has Failed Postmasters

Westminster Has Failed Postmasters

JamieBy Jamie16th January 202423 Views4 Mins Read Westminster
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp

UK Government Must Commit To Ensuring Justice

The Post Office Scandal has shocked and outraged so many of us and with good reason.

SNP MPs have been working for more than five years with sub-postmasters, who run local post offices, in seeking justice from the Post Office itself.

Post offices fulfil a vital role in local communities. A report last year found they add £3.8bn of social value to the UK. Right through the pandemic, sub-postmasters were key workers.

As much has moved online, post offices have dealt with more and more things needing to be sent for delivery. As bank branches have closed, banks have pointed to post offices as potential ways for the public to gain access to cash.

This is why it is so disheartening that those on the frontlines have been so failed by those who run The Post Office.

Last night I spoke in the House on the #PostOfficeScandal.

While the #MrBatesvsPostOffice drama has had a significant impact, it is bittersweet feeling. For years we have tried to get the Gov to act & deliver justice to the hundreds of innocent people.

Watch part of my speechā¬‡ļø pic.twitter.com/bYJPp7hiAy

— Marion Fellows MP (@marionfellows) January 9, 2024

Although local post offices are run as their own businesses, since the 90s they have been compelled to use Post Office Ltd’s Horizon accounting program. This system has for a long time invented amounts of lost money, and Post Office Ltd demanded that the sub-postmasters pay these imaginary shortfalls. Many were forced to.

This is bad enough – a public body arguably defrauding community workers. But it gets worse.

Post Office Ltd was actually able to prosecute these individuals. And due to this catastrophic failure of justice, many innocent people have suffered immensely.

These cases – prosecuting people for thefts of thousands of imaginary pounds that were never missing, based purely an erroneous computer program – succeeded for over a decade. Post Office Ltd – and the UK Government which owns it – claimed over and over again that there could not be an error, well after the point at which this was clearly false. Expert witnesses were brought in to back up the infallibility of their systems.

Successive Labour, Lib Dem and Tory ministers kept on insisting that there could not be an issue. Even years into a case where over 500 postmasters have been imprisoned, lost their livelihoods or forced to close their doors, it has been dramatized by ITV as ā€œMr Bates vs the Post Officeā€.

Under the unionist parties, this dragged on. Ministers were distracted by a privatisation which pushed The Post Office to go harder on sub-postmasters. And to many in the press, an accounting scandal was not of sufficient interest.

But this was so many real people’s lives. Many postmasters died without seeing justice – we know of at least four suicides among the Horizon cases.

https://twitter.com/theSNP/status/1745073209119011013?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1745073209119011013%7Ctwgr%5E4b80dc87dd52e4d6bf1473a4da1c927bc0b28efc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.snp.org%2Fwestminster-has-catastrophically-failed-a-commitment-to-ensuring-justice-for-sub-postmasters%2F

Yet SNP MPs have continually raised this in the UK Parliament. Angus’ Mike Weir first did so when it first became known back in 2011. Marion Fellows MP has led the Postal Affairs cross party group in Westminster, and worked closely with so many whose lives have been changed for the worse by the arrogant behaviour of Post Office Ltd.

Following SNP calls, the UK Government finally set up an inquiry. They have since made it a statutory inquiry, again following SNP calls.

This has been known about for years. There has been a book published and a podcast series released outlining the issues. Despite this having gone on for so long, many postmasters have also just recently come forward as a result of the ITV show.

In December 2019, on the day of the last general election, Post Office Ltd conceded the case brought by 555 postmasters in court.

Yet despite all of this, no-one has been held accountable. The Ministers who covered for The Post Office now claim they were lied to.

Those affected, and people in Scotland more generally, can be assured that SNP MPs at Westminster will continue working others across the political spectrum to ensure justice can finally be done.

Glad there is now an investigation underway but the UK Gov, had ample opportunity to investigate this matter & chose to ignore the obvious injustice of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to the Sec of State in 2020 asking him to do just that. pic.twitter.com/4W8vtkFTC9

— Drew Hendry MP (@drewhendrySNP) January 7, 2024
justice miscarriage of justice post office post office scandal sub-postmasters
Previous ArticleFunding to Bolster Local Food & Drink
Next Article Visitor Levy Bill Passes First Stage
Jamie
  • Website

I’m Graeme’s Parliamentary Assistant at Holyrood, but I also support his constituency work alongside my Angus-based colleagues. I joined Graeme's team in 2019, having previously worked for an MP up in my native Aberdeenshire and in fundraising roles in the education and third sectors.

Related Posts

Spending Review presents challenges

12th June 2025

Call for National Mission on Living Standards

23rd May 2025

Modernising Legal Services

21st May 2025
latest news

Expanding Access to Childcare

Scotland’s unpaid carers over Ā£4,400 better off

Spending Review presents challenges

Care Reform (Scotland) Bill passed

About
About

Graeme Dey is the the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Angus South Constituency.

Having worked for The Courier newspaper for 26 years, Graeme was elected to Holyrood in 2011.

In March 2023, Graeme was chosen by First Minister Humza Yousaf to be Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans.

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
Latest Posts

Expanding Access to Childcare

Scotland’s unpaid carers over Ā£4,400 better off

Spending Review presents challenges

Care Reform (Scotland) Bill passed

Flickr Photos
Transport Police
RM Condor Parliament 2
D&A College (Apprenticeship Week) 6
Deaf Hub 3
DofE3
Humza and Graeme close up pro
Humza Graeme Sign
Independence Convention
July7 Surgery 2]
CWA Parl 3
20230712_104835
20230712_110433
Banking Hub 1
SSERC
Ayrshire College
Poverty Alliance
© 2025 Graeme Dey MSP. No parliamentary funds have been used to create and maintain this website. Promoted by G. Dey, 282 High St, DD11 1JF.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.