The ousted Post Office chairman has insisted it was the company’s current chief executive who was the subject of an internal investigation, not him.
Former chair Henry Staunton was dismissed last month by business secretary Kemi Badenoch who said bullying accusations had been made against him.
But on Tuesday, Mr Staunton told MPs on the Business and Trade Committee that it was the CEO Nick Read who was being investigated.
Politics latest: Ex-chair stuns MPs with CEO claim
Mr Staunton said the Post Office boss “fell out” with the business’s [human resources] HR director and said that his own behaviour was only referenced once in an 80-page document about Mr Read.
The ex-chairman said there was one paragraph in the report on alleged politically incorrect remarks made by him and he “strenuously denied” the claim.
“This was a big investigation into Nick. And I didn’t realise you weren’t aware of that,” he told the MPs.
Asked if he was informed his behaviour was under investigation in November last year, Mr Staunton said: “What there is, actually, is Mr Read fell out with his HR director and she produced a ‘speak up’ document which was 80 pages thick.
“Within that, was one paragraph… about comments that I allegedly made. So this is an investigation, not into me, this is an investigation made into the chief executive Nick Read.
“That one paragraph you could say was about politically incorrect comments attributed to me which I strenuously deny.”
Downing Street has said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confidence in Mr Read following Mr Staunton’s claims.
Ben Tidswell, the senior independent director on the Post Office board, responded in an email to colleagues: “Like many of you, I know that Nick Read has at times felt the weight of Post Office’s awful…
