One person dominated Prime Minister’s Questions, and it wasn’t Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer. It was Kemi Badenoch, who appears to be going deeper into her battle with former Post Office chair Henry Staunton. Starmer decided to deepen the row further today, while Sunak notably didn’t make all that much effort to defend Badenoch beyond what was absolutely necessary.
The Labour leader made the focus of his questions about Badenoch, only widening it to the compensation payments for victims of the infected blood scandal towards the end. He asked:
Would the Prime Minister be prepared personally to repeat the allegation made by his Business Secretary that the former chair of the Post Office is lying when he says he was told to go slow on compensation for postmasters and limp to the next election?
Sunak did not, instead telling the Commons that Badenoch:
asked Henry Staunton to step down after serious concerns were raised, she set out the reasons for this and full background in the house earlier this week, but importantly we have also taken unprecedented steps to ensure that victims of the Horizon scandal do receive compensation as swiftly as possible and in full.
Starmer pursued the issue, pointing to a note released by Staunton that ‘appears to directly contradict’ Badenoch’s denial about delaying compensation.
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