Post Office Scandal: Hitchin MP Bim Afolami says Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has questions to answer

Hitchin MP and Tory minister Bim Afolami has insisted Lib Dems leader Ed Davey has 'questions to answer' in light of the ongoing Post Office scandal.

Our town's Parliamentarian has called on the Liberal Democrat's leader 'to be honest with people' over Davey's role in the Horizon IT accounting fiasco that created huge misery for honest sub postmasters wrongly accused of fraud.

The ongoing scandal led to as many as four suicides among the profession, unable to cope with being wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting in one of the worst miscarriages of justice this country has ever seen.

The Liberal Democrats leader - known among many voters for comic stunts after by-election victories - is now facing intense scrutiny for his response to the scandal when Davey was postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012.

Hitchin MP Mr Afolami, economic secretary to the Treasury, said Davey had a duty to explain why he failed to 'ask the right questions' at the time the saw many innocent postmasters bankrupted or jailed.

The move came after Davey had been accused of 'fobbing off' victims after being made aware of the faulty Horizon software that led to hundreds of postmasters suffering false accusations.

"What you have to do is ask the key questions and interrogate what you're told. And I think that Sir ed needs to explain what he was told why he allowed certain things to develop in the way they did," said the Hitchin MP.

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Disgraced former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has now said she will now hand back her CBE after the fallout from the Horizon IT scandal in the wake of the acclaimed ITV drama on the fiasco called Mr Bates vs The Post Office.