Give Alan Bates an honour for exposing Post Office scandal

Paula Vennells said she had “listened” after over 1.2million people signed the 38 Degrees petition to strip her of her CBE due to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of postal workers.

Now Alan Bates, the ex-postmaster who led the decades-long fight to expose the Horizon system scandal, should be recognised with the same honour himself.

He had previously turned down an OBE as he believed it would be a “slap in the face” to the victims to accept an honour while Ms Vennells still held her CBE.

Usually honours are announced to mark the New Year and the Monarch's birthday, but in special circumstances they can also be awarded at other times.

Carol Vorderman, the presenter of the Pride of Britain Awards that recognised Alan Bates last year, is leading calls for him to receive a CBE at least.

She said: "When I think of heroes I think of brave people who fight a Goliath for the good of all, and not themselves. Who are tenacious, who never give in. Alan Bates is all of those things. He shouldn't just get a CBE. He should be in the House of Lords getting his teeth into other matters. In Alan Bates we trust."

Tory former Cabinet minister David Jones said: “Alan Bates has obviously done a huge amount to expose what was going on at the Post Office. Personally speaking, I think that if Ms Vennells had the CBE, I think that he would easily be worth that.”

Labour MP Kevan Jones, a member of the Horizon compensation advisory board, said: “Alan Bates should definitely take up his OBE, but I think he deserves an honour much higher for all his efforts.”

We understand the Government could award him with an honour immediately without waiting for the King’s Birthday Honours in June.

The CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) is the highest honour (excluding a knighthood/damehood), followed by the OBE and then MBE.

Alan has campaigned tirelessly for almost 20 years to expose the truth about the Post Office Scandal and get justice for subpostmasters whose lives it destroyed.

He and his partner Suzanne Sercombe took over a shop in Llandudno that included a post office counter in 1998, investing £65,000 in the business.

By the end of 2000, after the introduction of the Post Office’s new Horizon computer system, unexplained losses appeared in his accounts.

In 2003, his contract was terminated. His careful record-keeping proved he was not at fault, but the Post Office said by then £1,200 was unaccounted for – a sum Alan said was never there in the first place and had simply appeared as a result of a glitch in the system.

Alan’s determination to get to the truth began almost immediately. Setting up a website to highlight his concerns, he also reached out to journalists to highlight the case and made contact with other subpostmasters.

He led a group of 555 postmasters in taking the Post Office to the High Court in a Group Litigation Order. In 2019, a judge ruled that the computer system contained “bugs, errors and defects”, and the Post Office agreed to settle with all the claimants who joined the GLO.

Alan has become a national treasure after millions watched his long and painful fight for justice portrayed in the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office.