'Clearly there was a failure'

Sir Vince Cable apologises to victims of Post Office scandal

- Josh Payne

FORMER business secretary Sir Vince Cable has apologised to Horizon scandal victims and said he must share "some responsibility for the fact this happened on our watch".

The ex-Liberal Democrat leader told the Horizon IT inquiry: "Clearly there was a policy failure." Sir Vince said issues with the system "barely came across my desk" as business secretary from 2010 to 2015, but "when they did it was usually in a very uncontroversial way".

He told the probe he "hadn't the faintest idea" that the Post Office was privately prosecuting subpostmasters, but recognised justice campaigner Sir Alan Bates's description of the company as "thugs in suits".

Sir Vince said in a statement to the inquiry: "These abuses occurred under a large number of ministers in Labour, coalition and Conservative governments and we all share some responsibility for the fact this happened on our watch.