Lee Anderson tells Ed Davey to ‘clear off’ over Post Office row in brutal PMQs attack

Lee Anderson sparked uproar in the Commons this afternoon after using his PMQs question to demand Sir Ed Davey “clear off” over his part in the Post Office scandal.

Mr Anderson told MPs that the Horizon Post Office scandal had seen hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters sent to prison, including one of his own constituents.

He pointed out that during the scandal, the Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey was the minister in charge of the Post Office.

“This is the same Liberal Democrat leader who in the past has called for the resignation of over 30 prominent people in this country who have made mistakes in their jobs.

“So does the Prime Minister agree with me that the leader of the Lib Dems should take his own advice, and start by clearing his desk, clearing his diary and clear off?”

The demand sparked supportive uproar in the Commons, with many Tory MPs seen demanding to know where the Lib Dem leader was.

Responding to the blunt demand by his party’s vice chairman, Rishi Sunak said the Post Office scandal was “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.

Dodging the question’s focus on his Lib Dem opponent, Mr Sunak used his opening remarks to reveal new Government plans to introduce primary legislation to exonerate all those wrongly convicted as part of the scandal.

“Today I can announce that we will introduce new primary legislation to make sure those convicted as part of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated and compensated.

“We will also introduce a new upfront payment of £75,000 for the vital GLO group of postmasters.”

The Prime Minister praised the work of the Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake “for all his hard work”, and pledged to set out more details to the Commons shortly.

Ed Davey has been under increasing pressure to resign as leader of the Lib Dems after further details of his failure to act on the Post Office scandal in 2010-12 emerged.

At the time he said he did not believe meeting with sub-postmaster Alan Bates “would serve any purpose”, however has now argued he was “deeply misled by Post Office executives”.

Jo Hamilton, who led a landmark appeal in the campaign for postmasters said the Senior Lib Dem should have “done his job”.

Ms Hamilton said: “Of course Davey should have been asking more questions, he’s the minister, what does he get his ministerial salary for if he’s not asking questions. What did he think, we were just moaning? I can’t believe it.”

“If you’re the minister you deal with stuff — that is the job. You have to earn your money for doing the job like the rest of us. They’re called public servants but they do anything but serve the public.”

“He always calls for other people’s resignations, now it’s time for him to look in the mirror.”

An Express.co.uk poll of 22,000 people found that 97 percent said Sir Ed should resign.

An identical number of voters said he should also hand back his knighthood, following former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells agreeing to hand back her CBE.