Post Office campaigner Alan Bates ‘still waiting for an answer’ from Starmer

Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates said he has yet to receive a reply from Sir Keir Starmer, despite writing to him over a month ago.

Bates is currently giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, calling for a deadline on compensation which has still not been paid following the Horizon scandal.

He told MPs he wrote to Sir Keir twice about a deadline for financial damages by the end of March 2025, and added: “I never received a response.”

He said more than 70 people have died from the group who launched the landmark legal case, and there are people “well into their 80s still suffering.” He added: “Deadlines do need to be set. People have been waiting far too long.”

Bates told Sky News: “I sent him (Starmer) a reminder yesterday. I told him the clock is still ticking and it’s now five months from the March deadline, which I’m told is still achievable by other professionals.”

When asked by committee chair Liam Byrne whether he would consider crowdfunding to return to court, Bates didn’t rule it out.

He said: “I would never say never. I know that if we decide to go down that route we are going to halt the current scheme, and it’s going to be at least six, 12 or 24 months before it moves forward in that direction.”

Referencing an upcoming meeting with the campaign group, he confirmed: “That might be a choice people are prepared to take.”

Bates has declined compensation offers twice this year, which he said was about a sixth of his claim, and branded it “cruel” and “derisory”.

Others affected by the scandal have been sharing their devastating stories in front of the committee, including the daughter of Janet Moorhead, who was once an award-winning sub-postmaster from County Durham.

Ms Moorhead’s daughter Jill Donnison told the committee how her mum had to make good losses of as much as £5,000 within hours of a “shortage” being discovered, before selling her business for a “ridiculous” price and dying from ill health two years later.

Sir Alan Bates, who is the driving force of the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance which brought legal action against the Post Office, was knighted for services to justice in September.

He was sacked in 2003 after faulty Horizon software showed discrepancies in the accounts of his Post Office branch in Llandudno, north Wales.

More than 900 sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015 were prosecuted for offences including theft, fraud and false accounting due to faulty Horizon software which incorrectly showed missing money.

Many sub-postmasters were plunged into grave financial issues, some faced prison time, and some took their own lives.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said a deadline will not be set, and explained the waiting time reply saying: “It was obviously right that we took the time to consider the issues raised in the letter to the Prime Minister, consider our response, make sure it was accurate and substantial and obviously we engaged with relevant departments to ensure that the Prime Minister’s response was as full as possible.”

They also said: “What we don’t want to do is set an arbitrary cut-off date which could result in some claimants missing the deadline. We obviously don’t want to put pressure on claimants and put them off contesting their claim.”