Post Office inquiry live: Post Office was ‘authoritarian’ in dealing with sub-postmasters, Vince Cable says

Emily Atkinson
Reporting from the inquiry

We’re being shown several letters being sent from the then-postal affairs minister Ed Davey in response to correspondence sent to Cable by other MPs.

A letter sent in response to a note from Norman Lamb MP, on behalf of constituent Allison Henderson about her concerns over the Post Office’s audit procedures, is pulled up on the screens.

In it, Davey insisted the issues raised were “operational and contractual matters” between the Post Office and Henderson, and that neither he nor the business department could intervene after she pleaded guilty to false accounting.

He also wrote that Henderson raised no problems with the Horizon IT system – which Beer tells the inquiry “we know to be false”, having raised it in court on two occasions.

Beer also notes a “dig” at Henderson in the letter, which reads: “She didn’t complain when she had the opportunity, namely in court proceedings.”

Cable says this is a level of detail he never got involved in.

Would you expect officials to include this kind of content, Beer asks.

Cable repeats the same line, agreeing it was “not unreasonable” for the department to reproduce versions of events given by Post Office.

“You don’t see anything objectionable?” Beer pushes.

Cable replies: “It is a little odd, now you mention it.”