Ealing Central and Acton MP, Dr Rupa Huq, called on the government to reopen the crown post office in Acton after it closed in 2018 following the Horizon scandal.

This comes as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced today (10 January) that the government will bring in a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the Post Office case.

MPs debated the Post Office scandal, which has seen more than 700 wrongly prosecuted sub-postmasters and mistresses due to a faulty software system, in the House of Commons on Monday 8 January.

Introduced by the Post Office in 1999, Horizon is a system developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, for accounting and stocktaking tasks.

Sub-postmasters complained about bugs in the system after it falsely reported shortfalls - often for thousands of pounds.

Some attempted to plug the gap with their own money, as their contracts stated they were responsible for any shortfalls, but many went bankrupt or lost their livelihoods as a consequence.

In the House of Commons, Dr Huq told ministers: "ITV and the power of drama deserve our praise for galvanising Government action far faster than the questions I have been asking here since 2020.

"As well as Mr Bates there was Mr Patel, who was forced to give a false confession to avoid prison. He had the humiliation of attending the graduation of his son, my constituent Varchas, while electronically tagged.

"Despite Mr Patel's conviction having been quashed in 2020, he has had zilch compensation and suffered huge ill health.

"Can the Minister sort that, make sure that heads roll and make good on Paula Vennells' promise to me in 2018, when she pulled the plug on Acton crown post office, that we will get a post office again? We are still waiting."

Former Post Office CEO to hand back CBE after petition gets more than a million signitures (credit: Duncan Cumming/ Flickr).

Replying to Dr Huq, Business and Trade Minister, Kevin Hollinrake said: "I thank the hon. Lady for her question and work on behalf of Mr Patel.

"If Mr Patel's conviction was overturned in 2020, he should have received £163,000 in interim compensation, which was made available to anybody with an overturned conviction. He can also access two routes: either a fixed-sum award of £600,000 or the full assessment route.

"He can make a decision based on whatever level of compensation he and his advisers think he is due. One route is undoubtedly quicker than the other due to the complex nature of assessing claims.

"I agree with the hon. Lady about people being held accountable, as I said in my statement and in response to other Members. Picking up her point about Acton post office, Paula Vennells does not have much influence over that any more, but we can ask questions about that on the hon. Lady's behalf."

The former Post Office chief executive, Paula Vennells, who was in charge of the organisation during a period of wrongful prosecutions, confirmed yesterday that she was going to hand back her CBE after calls for her to return it intensified.

Vennells said she was "truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon [accounting software] system."

Despite Dr Huq raising the case of ex-Acton postmaster, Mr Patel, back in 2020 to Parliament, it was the recent ITV drama Mr Bates vs. The Post Office has catalysed recent public interest and government action.

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