- Written by Harrison Jones
- BBC News
Henry Stanton has been chairman of the Post Office since December 2022.
The Post Office chairman was sacked “because it simply wasn't working”, the business secretary said.
Kemi Badenoch told the BBC that Henry Staunton's resignation was about more than just the Horizon scandal, following a public outcry over the deputy postmaster general's wrongful conviction.
Mr Badenoch said he sacked him over concerns about the Post Office's governance and “its entire business model”.
Labor called on the government to provide more concrete reasons for its decision.
Mr. Stanton resigned from his position on Saturday. The BBC has contacted him for comment.
The Post Office said Mr Stanton was asked to go by Mr Badenoch.
See: What were the Post Office layoffs about? – Badenoch asked
Appearing on Sunday's Laura Kuenssberg Show, Badenoch said it was extremely difficult to be asked to resign from his position.
But she continued. “Given all the challenges the Post Office is having, this is not just about Horizon, it's about the whole business model and how we make it work, and I'm happy to serve as chairman of the board. We decided that we needed people to deal with these things effectively. ”
She explained that one of her priorities was the governance of the Postal Service, saying, “That's where my decision was that we needed a new chair. It wasn't working.”
Mr Badenoch added that there were “a lot of disagreements” within the board and “when we saw that, we thought we needed to make some changes”.
Appearing on Sky's Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, she refused to rule out further changes, referring to “difficulties” and other executives.
On Sunday, along with Laura Kuenssberg, she refused to set a deadline for full compensation to those affected, echoing the position of Chancellor Rishi Sunak. But Ms Badenoch promised: “We can't go any faster than we are.”
“Setting a deadline is not a priority,” she says.
“It’s important to extract funding, get fair compensation and sort out the governance of the Post Office.”
This incident comes as the Post Office is reeling from the aftermath of the Horizon scandal, which is said to be the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmasters were charged with using flawed accounting software, Horizon, to make it appear as though money was missing from their stores.
Many of those affected were financially ruined.
Mr. Stanton was appointed Postal Service Chairman in December 2022.
As part of the role, advertised with a salary of up to £150,000, he was tasked with leading the board of directors to right the wrongs of the Horizon dispute.
Previously, he worked as a director for companies ranging from ITV to WH Smith.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “On Saturday afternoon, the Post Office was informed that the Secretary of State for Commerce and Trade had asked Mr Henry Stanton to resign as Post Office Chairman.”
“We have been informed by the government that an interim chairman will be appointed soon.”
Watch video: Labor demands 'specific reasons' from government for removal of Post Office chairs
Appearing alongside Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Labour's shadow enterprise secretary also slammed the government's decision to ask Mr Stanton as “highly unusual”.
Jonathan Reynolds said: “The government has to tell us why it took this decision yesterday.”
“The person resigning wasn't actually there for the scandal, so there must be a particular reason why they don't have confidence in him continuing.”
Executives from the Post Office and the technology company Fujitsu, which developed the Horizon software, are currently being questioned in a public inquiry into what happened.
Conservative peer James Arbuthnot, who has been campaigning on behalf of the deputy postmaster, told the BBC he was surprised Mr Staunton had resigned from the post.
He said retirement is an opportunity to change the organization's culture and governance.
Some of his campaign allies have criticized the Postal Service's leadership for being too slow in disbursing compensation and disbursing bonuses to senior executives too quickly.
Their hope is that the appointment of a new chairman will mark the beginning of broader changes.
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