“Hatred” of Margaret Thatcher “still burns bright” in Scottish mining communities 40 years on, an MP has said.
12.01.2024 - 13:57 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Sir Keir Starmer has said that only a 'handful' of cases linked to the Horizon scandal may have been handled by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) during his time in charge of the organisation. The Labour leader, who was the Director of Public Prosecutions at the CPS between 2008 and 2013, has said he was not aware of Horizon cases brought against subpostmasters.
The majority of cases against victims of the scandal were brought by the Post Office using its own private prosecutions powers. That has prompted calls for the Post Office to be stripped of those powers in the future, as the fall-out from the scandal continues.
It comes after an ITV drama shone a light on how subpostmasters were wrongly convicted over money which was missing due to faulty Horizon accounting software. The public response to Mr Bates vs The Post Office led the Prime Minister to announce this week that hundreds of the wrongly prosecuted people in England and Wales could have their names cleared by the end of the year.
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Speaking to broadcasters about the scandal during a visit to Bury, Sir Keir said: "I think it’s very important to be clear that these were, or the vast majority of these were, Post Office prosecutions brought by the Post Office in relation to their cases.
"A small number, at the moment it looks like there may have been three or so, a handful of cases, in the five years that I was director of public prosecutions that were handled by the Crown Prosecution Service."
He said it was "not even known what the detail of those cases are and it needs to be put in its context – in the five years I was director of public prosecutions I had 7,000 staff and
“Hatred” of Margaret Thatcher “still burns bright” in Scottish mining communities 40 years on, an MP has said.
A Greater Manchester MP has called for an 'immediate' and 'sustainable' ceasefire in Gaza. Gorton MP Afzal Khan, who quit the Labour frontbench in November over the party's stance on the Middle East conflict, will present a petition to Parliament today (January 24).
MPs will hold a minute's silence on Thursday (January 18) in memory of Tony Lloyd following his death aged 73. The Rochdale MP died 'peacefully' and 'surrounded' by his loved ones on Wednesday morning, his family announced.
AJ Tracey, Craig David and Annie Lennox are among those to have joined the new #Justice4Windrush campaign.The campaign aims to ensure that more of the 15,000 people eligible for compensation after historical wrongful deportation from the UK are able to claim their money.Under 14 per cent of these people have accessed their compensation so far, with just £73.58million of an allocated £200-500million being paid out to victims. While waiting for compensation, over 40 Windrush victims have died.The campaign group have written an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer which can be signed here.Of her involvement in the campaign, which launches with a new video set to an alternate version of her song ‘Why?’, Lennox said: “With #Justice4Windrush, we want to put the issue of Windrush front and centre, to ensure that the Windrush generation are seen, heard and healed.“Bigotry, hatred and racism have pervaded the British establishment for too long.
Ian Murray has branded Humza Yousaf as "desperate" after the First Minister claimed there was no point in voting Labour because the party is going to win the general election.
Stephen Flynn has said that the SNP is "confident of success" in the general election despite a poll suggesting Labour could win the most Scottish seats.
Vulnerable, elderly patients waiting more than a day for a bed; patients at the end of their lives dying in A&E while they’re waiting for a bed to pass away in dignity; and an estimated ‘2,000 excess deaths in November’ alone.
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Labour leader Keir Starmer has set out what he would do for Greater Manchester if he becomes Prime Minister. In a wide-ranging interview with the Manchester Evening News, Sir Keir spoke about transport, housing and devolution as well as the conflict in the Middle East.
Labour leader Keir Starmer will work 'hand in glove' with Andy Burnham and give him more power if he becomes Prime Minister. Sir Keir told the Manchester Evening News that more power will be put in the hands of local leaders in Greater Manchester under a Labour government.
Labour will not bring HS2 to the North of England, Keir Starmer has said. The Labour leader told the Manchester Evening News today (January 11) that he has ruled out putting the ill-fated plans for a new high-speed railway line between Birmingham and Manchester back on track.
Actor Toby Jones has won the nation's hearts while portraying real life hero Alan Bates in ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office, and fans have been left shocked after discovering a rather surprising role he had in the past.Toby, 57, has starred in a number of popular films and TV shows, and has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Unvierse, the Harry Potter franchise, and The Hunger Games trilogy. He appeared as Dr.
Everyone in Scotland convicted as part of the Horizon Post Office scandal will be cleared, Humza Yousaf has said.
The Post Office tried to play down the potential impact of its dodgy IT system on criminal trials in Scotland, prosecutors have revealed.
ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office angered viewers who were horrified to learn the true extent of the Horizon scandal. Many were even more infuriated to learn former head of the Post Office, Paula Vennells, was awarded a CBE. More than 1.2 million people signed a petition urging the government to strip her of the award.
The current landscape is making it “increasingly hard” to fund British stories such as the Post Office drama that is currently dominating the news agenda, according to ITV‘s drama boss.
Rishi Sunak has said he would 'strongly support' the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking former Post Office boss Paula Vennells' CBE in the wake of the Horizon scandal.
Labour has called for prosecution powers to be stripped from the Post Office and previous convictions looked at again following the Horizon scandal.
A petition demanding ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells is stripped of her CBE has soared to nearly 500,000 signatures in recent days.The urgent demand from viewers comes after the ITV drama series Mr Bates vs The Post Office focusing on 'the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history' - aired on ITV and ITVX on New Year's Day. The limited series detailed the real life events of 2009, when a group of sub-postmasters formed the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance, after a defective IT system called Horizon led to a slew of wrongful prosecutions of fraud, theft and false accounting. A petition calling for the former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE quickly passed 350,000 signatures following the final episode of the ITV1 drama on Thursday night.
Throughout the first week of January, ITV viewers at home have been gripped by fresh new drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which followed the real life journey of several sub-postmasters who were wrongfully accused (and in some cases even charged) with stealing from the Post Office, thanks to a Horizon computer error.The show, which spanned across four nights in total, saw a star studded cast including Toby Jones, Will Mellor and Julie Hesmondhalgh bring the story to life, including their ongoing fight for justice and compensation for the hundreds of people that were still affected by the error. In emotional scenes, fans saw the toll of the scandal with their own eyes, with several of the accused having lost their jobs, their homes and in some cases even having taken their own lives after struggling to cope with the mental toll of being wrongfully blamed for the error.