Kemi Badenoch emerged from this morning’s Commons evidence session strengthened by the testimony of one of her top officials. But this afternoon a very different story emerged as Henry Staunton – the man she forced out as Post Office chairman – got his say before the Business Select Committee. He said he had been the target of a ‘smear campaign’ led by Badenoch and fought back against allegations that he had told ‘lies’.

The key moment of Staunton’s evidence concerned claims that he was forced out at the Post Office after bullying allegations were made against him. But, in an astonishing turn of events, he insisted it was the company’s current chief executive, Nick Read, who was the subject of an internal investigation, not him. Clutching a page of what he claimed was an 80-page dossier, Staunton said he was only under investigation for ‘one paragraph’ in the document, relating to ‘politically incorrect comments’ made, but that he ‘strenuously denies’ this allegation.

Asked by Tory MP Jonathan Gullis if it was ‘his understanding that Mr Read is also under investigation’, Staunton replied: ‘This investigation is primarily into Nick Read and the 80-page dossier.’ It was left to Gullis to respond: ‘That’s blown my… I was not expecting that answer.’ Staunton added that Read wanted to resign from the Post Office because he was unhappy with his annual salary of £436,000. He added, under further questioning, that he did try to secure a pay rise for Read but that Badenoch’s predecessor Grant Shapps blocked it.

It came just hours after Read had given evidence before the same committee, in which he told MPs he was paid well enough and wanted to remain in the job. Staunton claimed that Read had tried to resign four times during the time when the pair were both at the Post Office, during December 2022 and January 2024. Yet Read, under oath, told MPs when asked if he had ever tried to resign from the Post Office ‘No. Why do you ask?’

It was a day of revelations that showed the utter chaos which remains at the heart of the Post Office, after years of well-documented failings.