Henry Staunton has been ousted after just a year as the Post Office chairman amid mounting tensions with its government shareholder, Sky News can exclusively reveal.
By Mark Kleinman, City editor @MarkKleinmanSky
The chairman of the Post Office is being forced out of the role amid frustration in Whitehall over the state-owned company’s governance as it reels from the Horizon IT scandal.
Sky News has learnt that Henry Staunton, who only became chairman of the Post Office in December 2022 after a long career in FTSE boardrooms, was this weekend told by Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, that he was to be replaced amid mounting tension with the government.
Sources said this weekend that Ms Badenoch had notified him of the decision in a telephone call on Saturday afternoon.
The hunt for a new chairman will come as the government tries to force through legislation that will more quickly compensate hundreds of sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted over the faulty software which triggered Britain’s biggest miscarriage of justice.
One insider said there had been several sources of tension between the Post Office chairman and the government in recent months.
Among them, they said, was a row over the prospective appointment of a new senior independent director to replace Ben Tidswell, who is due to step down in the coming months.
Mr Staunton and a number of colleagues are said to have been keen for Andrew Darfoor, a former financial services executive who is one of the company’s existing non-executive directors, to take the position.
However, the government is understood to want to appoint a Whitehall insider to the role as it looks to strengthen the Post Office’s corporate governance.
Tensions also arose last year over the mistaken payment of bonuses to Nick Read, the chief executive, which were linked to its cooperation with the Horizon inquiry.
Insiders said, however, that Mr Staunton’s exit was not directly related to the Horizon scandal itself.
A government spokesperson said: “In a phone call earlier today, the secretary of state for business and trade and Henry Staunton, chair of Post Office Limited (POL), agreed to part ways by mutual consent.
“An interim will be appointed shortly and a recruitment process for a new chair will be launched in due course, in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.”
Mr Staunton could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
The government’s shareholding in Post Office Limited is managed by UK Government Investments (UKGI), which is also responsible for the public’s stakes in Channel 4, the Met Office and other state-owned companies.
The Post Office relies on government funding to operate, and has been struggling in recent years amid tougher competition across the sectors in which it operates.
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Mr Staunton previously chaired Phoenix Group, the insurance company, and WH Smith, the high street retailer.
His executive career included a stint at ITV, while he held other boardroom seats at companies such as BSkyB – which was the listed company that owns Sky News – and Ladbrokes.
The decision to replace him comes as the government tries to exert a firmer grip on the fallout from the Horizon crisis, with Rishi Sunak pledging new laws to “swiftly exonerate and compensate” those affected.
“People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of…
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