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Kemi Badenoch said she sacked the Postmaster General because she felt she was unable to bring about the scale of change needed in the aftermath of the Horizon IT scandal.
Britain's business secretary told the BBC on Sunday that a change in board leadership was necessary because the state-owned company's governance under Henry Stanton was “not working”.
He confirmed that Stanton, who was appointed chairman of the board in December 2022, a little more than a year ago, was asked to resign in a phone call on Saturday.
“There were a lot of differences of opinion within the board, and we thought it was necessary to make some changes,” Badenoch said.
“This is not just a Horizon issue, it's an issue across our business model. … We needed someone who could chair a board that could effectively address these issues,” she added. Ta.
On Saturday, the Department of Commerce, Industry and Trade announced that Mr Badenoch and Mr Stanton had “agreed to part ways by mutual consent”. Stanton could not be reached for comment.
The move follows a major overhaul of the Post Office's board last month and heightened public awareness of the decades-old Horizon scandal following the airing of the ITV drama.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 subpostmasters were convicted in lawsuits brought by the Post Office using data from Fujitsu's flawed Horizon IT system.
More than 900 subpostmasters have been convicted of using data from the Japanese company's Horizon software, including in cases brought by Scottish prosecutors and others.
This month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak branded the case “one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in our country's history” and announced that he would introduce legislation to have all the convictions quashed.
The opposition Labor Party said on Sunday the government needed to justify Stanton's sacking, but acknowledged the scale of the challenge within the organization exceeded the horizon.
Labour's shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “The government will have to explain why the decision was made yesterday and that the person who departed was not there because of the scandal.” Ta.
“It is highly unusual for a decision like this to be taken at the weekend,” he told the BBC.
Mr Stanton's resignation comes as the Government prepares to appoint a new senior independent director at the Post Office to replace Ben Tidswell, whose three-year term ends at the end of July.
Mr. Tidswell is the chair of the committee that oversees the two compensation schemes for affected subpostmasters and is a member of the compensation committee.
The Compensation Commission was criticized last year for improperly approving bonuses to Postal Service executives for their support of the ongoing public inquiry into the Horizon scandal.
The Post Office had claimed that the chair of the inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, had provided “confirmation” that executives had “supported and enabled” the investigation. Mr Williams said the statement was “misleading”.
The Post Office will make a pre-tax loss of £81m in 2022-23, down from £131m the previous year. This does not include the cost of bailing out the sub-postmaster general, with the government setting aside £1bn to pay victims.
Members of the government-appointed Horizon Remuneration Advisory Committee told the Financial Times on Saturday that they expected further changes within the Post Office's leadership.
Separately, the Cabinet Office confirmed on Friday that former head of Fujitsu's UK division, Michael Keegan, had resigned from his role as Crown representative.
