Apart from Lee Anderson saying Ed Davey “should start by clearing his desk, clearing his diary, and clear off” at PMQs, ex-postmistress Sally Stringer has called for the LibDem leader to resign on BBC Radio 5 Live today. She says she has a letter from Davey in which he says he was “fully aware” of what was going on in the Post Office while minister. Speaking to LibDem Wendy Chamberlain MP, who claimed Davey was “lied to” about the goings on by officials after asking questions in 2010, Stringer claimed that Davey was well-informed of the scandal’s details. She went on to say, “So either he is not telling the truth, or he is stupid.” The BBC’s Nicky Campbell made a rare sound comment: “If Ed Davey wasn’t Ed Davey, Ed Davey would be calling for Ed Davey to resign”…
Meanwhile, the LibDems have been sending out emails painting Davey as a victim in the scandal, blasting the Tories’ “personal attacks“, “misrepresent[ation]” and “scapegoat[ing]” of Sir Ed. Deputy LibDem leader Daisy Cooper has put an article in her local paper expressing her “full support” for the victim of Tories who are “manufacturing political attacks“. Guido doesn’t have to think twice about who the real victims are…
Read the LibDems’ email to supporters in below:
“Dear X,
I’d like to thank you for your generous support for the Lib Dems and wish you a happy and healthy new year as we look ahead to a general election in 2024, I hope your Christmas holiday was a joyful one.
We’re incredibly grateful for your backing and hope you will continue to support us as we prepare for the coming election. We have a significant opportunity to increase our influence and we expect to see a bitter campaign from the Conservatives with personal attacks on Ed Davey and other Lib Dems.
There were two points I wanted to pick up, one administrative, about our volume of communications, and the other – a more serious point – about the Horizon scandal.
You may have seen stories scapegoating Ed in relation to the longstanding Post Office scandal. Ed was postal affairs minister for 20 months in the context of 20 years when the Post Office denied the claims of the victims; his understandable response was to believe the claims were inaccurate.
The true picture only finally started to emerge through the sub-postmasters’ court cases years later and from that moment on Ed played an active role in campaigning for a full statutory inquiry to get justice for the victims (unlike Conservative ministers who refused).
Even at the beginning of the scandal Ed did meet with activist Alan Bates (contrary to press implications) and was the first minister on record to do so seven years after Bates first raised concerns with Labour ministers in 2003.
The Party is working to counteract the misrepresentation of Ed who has already said that he deeply regrets not realising that the Post Office was lying to him and other ministers. We expect the Conservatives to scapegoat and attack Lib Dems in a number of misleading ways in the coming election campaign, given their difficult electoral position, and we are preparing for further attacks.
There is more information about the Horizon case here, please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any points to make or questions about this dreadful miscarriage of justice.
On a more prosaic point, we want to make sure we are getting our level of comms right and not bombarding you with excess emails or leaving you uncontacted about political news and insights you might be interested in. Could you possibly give me a steer if you are dissatisfied with our volume of or content of emails? In such a critical year we want to get this right.
Thanks again for your generous backing, we look forward to working together to change the government at the next election. I very much hope we can continue to count on your invaluable support.”
