Post Office scandal: petition to strip Paula Vennells of CBE reaches one million signatures as Sunak says he would 'strongly support' decision

More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE honour after the ITV drama brought the Post Office Horizon scandal to the forefront.

'Mr Bates vs The Post Office has been a hit drama for ITV, bringing to light for many the widespread injustices served upon former sub-postmasters of the Post Office, after they were wrongly convicted for a fault originating in the company's accounting system, Horizon. More than 700 branch managers were convicted after the software made it look as though money was missing from their shops.

Vennells, who was in charge of the Post Office while it denied that there were any errors with its IT systems, has said that she is "truly sorry" to those who "suffered" from the scandal. Now one million people have signed the online petition addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the Forfeiture Committee, calling for her to be stripped of her honour which she was awarded in 2019 for her services to the Post Office and charity.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also commented on the situation, saying that he would "strongly support" the Horizon Forfeiture Committee if it were to look at revoking her CBE. The PM's spokesman said: "The PM shares the public’s strength of feeling of outrage on this issue, he would strongly support the forfeiture committee if it chose to review the case. You’ll know it’s a decision for the committee rather than the government."

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Accrington, Sunak added that work was being done to compensate those impacted by the scandal. He said: “People should know that we are on it and we want to make this right, that money has been set aside. We will do everything we can to make this right for the people affected. It is simply wrong what happened. They shouldn’t have been treated like this.”

With parliament now back in session, some MPs including Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer, Tory MP David Davis and former Labour minister Kevan Jones are calling for an emergency debate on the issue. Starmer told reporter during a trip to Loughborough: “The Government could pass legislation, so obviously we’d support that if they did. It might be possible to get these cases back before the Court of Appeal quickly – I’ve done that when I was a prosecutor – but whichever way it’s done, these convictions need to be looked at.”