New Tory leader tell inquiry of asking Treasury to sign off funding for better compensation over Horizon IT scandal

The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has said it is “extremely disappointing” that it took the ITV drama about the Post Office scandal to get the government to accelerate compensation payments for wrongfully prosecuted branch owner-operators, the inquiry has heard.

Badenoch, the new leader of the opposition who held the post of business secretary for 17 months until the general election, said she and her then postal minister, Kevin Hollinrake, had been working behind the scenes to get the Treasury to sign off on funding for more rapid and generous payouts for post officer operators affected by the Horizon IT scandal.