Post Office scandal Compensation delay may force legal action - Bates

Alan Bates has suggested post office operators could take fresh legal action if the government fails to set a deadline for compensating them.

- Eleni Courea, Mark Sweney

The campaigner revealed yesterday that he has written twice to Keir Starmer requesting an end-of-March deadline for post office operators to receive financial redress.

Bates told MPs he had received no response from the prime minister, and that he and other campaigners wrongly accused of fraud in the Horizon IT scandal were considering legal action.

Speaking to the business and trade select committee, Bates said: "If deadlines are not set for the schemes to be finished then there's every chance...it might be quicker for us to go back to court."

He added: "Deadlines do need to be set. You can't have an endless piece of string on this. People have been waiting far too long, over 20-odd years. There's over 70 who have died along the way...there are people well into their 80s still suffering."

Asked if he might go back to court with a crowdfunded campaign, he said: "I would never say never. It is a consideration. I would not say I haven't spoken to people about this."