Alan Bates: Starmer is talking nonsense about Post Office payouts

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1. The hero campaigner said he will look at new legal options next year over the delays in compensation to sub-postmasters 

   Post Office campaigner [Sir Alan Bates](https://inews.co.uk/news/post-office-scandal-hero-alan-bates-starmer-compensation-march-deadline-3334073?ico=in-line_link) has hit out at what he called “nonsense” from Sir Keir Starmer over [slow compensation to sub-postmasters](https://inews.co.uk/news/post-office-campaigners-new-year-honours-rather-have-compensation-3454811?ico=in-line_link) as he eyes fresh legal action in the New Year.

   The hero [former sub-postmaster](https://inews.co.uk/news/alan-bates-post-office-knighted-king-birthday-honours-3110351?ico=in-line_link) wrote twice to the Prime Minister in October over the time taken for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal to receive financial redress.

   He received what he termed a “standard civil service” reply from Starmer in November on the day he addressed MPs at a public select committee over the scandal, which saw more than 900 sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted.

   Sir Alan told *The i Paper* of Starmer’s reply: “It was just nonsense – ‘we’re doing everything we can, we’re working at pace’.

   “It didn’t arrive until after I left the select committee. Funny that, isn’t it? The timing of his second response, I think I was working out, he must have been landing at the airport when he wrote it.

   “I was going to write this month as well, but I thought it’s absolutely pointless because I’m just going to get the same junk answer from the civil service.”

   The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance [Sir Alan leads](https://inews.co.uk/news/what-we-learned-alan-bates-post-office-horizon-inquiry-2997750?ico=in-line_link) is battling for compensation for 555 former sub-postmasters who took part in landmark group legal action against the Post Office.

   But five years on from winning an initial court battle, and a year after the ITV drama [*Mr Bates vs the Post Office* ](https://inews.co.uk/news/post-office-boss-nick-read-resign-horizon-inquiry-3282444?ico=in-line_link)sharpened the focus on one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, no deadline has been set for when they will receive redress.

2. They are just stringing it out until all the claimants are dead, that much is obvious.

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