The following is text and comment taken from the tweet below.
#PostOfficeScandal Earlier this evening on
@BBCNewsnight
hosted by
@vicderbyshire
, she was joined by former
@LibDems
leader Jo Swinson (
@joswinson
) and Second Sight investigator Ron Warmington (
@RonRwarming
).
![:fire: 🔥](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/1f525.png?v=2.2.7)
Explosive revelations as Swinson says Paula Vennell's former
@PostOffice
CEO lied to her in a face to face meeting and in a letter that was then published before Parliament!
Ron Warmington had just given evidence to the
@PostOffInquiry
earlier today. This was the first time Jo Swinson and Ron had met.
Ron said they had almost immediately upon appointment by the Post Office realised things had gone wrong on the prosecution front. This was in September 2012. Second Sight had made it abundantley clear they were forensic accountants not lawyers, they were making opinions on cases based on being accountants and not as lawyers. He advised the Post Office to get advice on the prosecutions, they had wanted to go to the firm they had usually used during the prosecutions. Warmington told them they must be mad, going to the firm that had got them into the mess in the first place, and suggested they go to the top firms which he named one or two and was told we cannot do that as the board will not tolerate that cost.
Victoria asked Ron how the Post Office and Paula Vennell's treat him when they were getting to the truth. Initially they had appeared to want to co-operate and find the truth and both Ron and Ian had made it very clear that they shouldn't hire their firm if you want a whitewash or you won't help us get to the truth. Ron was getting too old and he didn't need the work he told Newsnight, and said he would reject this job unless you agree to join us in the unrestricted search for the truth regardless of the consequences. They were reassured by the top hierarchy at the Post Office on this.
As soon as they started to find 'stuff, nasty evidence of awful prosecution practices and sitting on top of really poor investigation processes'. When they started to speak out about these not long after a change of General Counsel to Chris Aujard, the tide turned massively. He said he had enough of this and even though he is not a quitter he was pulling the team out. He was advised by his team there would be no one in the way of the wolves and the Postmasters if he did that, so he was persuaded to stay put.
Jo Swinson was then asked by Victoria, "you are yet to give evidence, can I ask you did Paula Vennell's lie to you?"
Jo Swinson replied : Yes
Victoria : Really?
Jo Swinson : Yes
Victoria : What did she say to you that was a lie?
Jo Swinson : So obviously during the unfolding of everything that happened as my time as Minister I was asking lots of questions, probing, seeking assurances, been told about the investigations that they had undertaken into all the prosecutions that had happened and she told me in categorical terms that no evidence had been unturned that had shown any of those prosecutions were unsafe in anyway AND that if anything did become discovered in the process of their investigations that would ever give any potential that any prosecution might be unsafe they had an immediate legal duty to disclose it and that they would comply with that duty very seriously. I took that as a very categorical assurance to my face and in writing also that I published in parliament (
@UKParliament
/
@HouseofCommons
), in March 2015 and we now know from the subsequent court cases that was absolutely not true, they had not been complying with their disclosure duties.
WOW
![:bangbang: ‼](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/203c.png?v=2.2.7)
So now we have on the public record Lord Arbuthnot saying that Paula Vennell's lied to him and the Select Committee and now Jo Swinson saying she lied to her face and in writing which was published in parliament.
Watch the full piece below now
![:arrow_double_down: ⏬](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/23ec.png?v=2.2.7)