The scandal saw hundreds of subpostmasters and mistresses wrongly <\/span>accused of theft, fraud and false accounting<\/span><\/a> by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 after a defective IT system<\/a> made it appear as though money was missing.<\/span><\/p>\n There had been mounting pressure on Vennells \u2013 who served as chief executive of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019 \u2013 to give up her honour, which she received when she stepped down five years ago, after ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office<\/a> prompted renewed interest in the story.<\/span><\/p>\n A petition for Vennells to hand back the CBE had reached over 1 million signatures, while a number of ministers had also suggested she should do so.<\/span><\/p>\n In a statement on Tuesday, Vennells \u2013 who was played in the ITV drama by Lia Williams \u2013 said: \u201cI <\/span>continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry<\/span> and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am, however, aware of the calls from subpostmasters and others to return my CBE. I<\/span>\u00a0have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She continued: \u201cI am truly sorry for <\/span>the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families<\/span>, whose lives were torn apart by being <\/span>wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted<\/span> as a result of the Horizon system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Jo Hamilton<\/a>, a former subpostmistress who <\/span>was wrongly accused of theft in the Post Office scandal, and who is portrayed by Monica Dolan in the series, told the PA news agency that <\/span>she is \u201cglad\u201d the former Post Office boss has handed her CBE back, but added: \u201cIt\u2019s a shame it took just a million people to cripple her conscience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt shows the people have spoken \u2013 about everything really. It\u2019s not just about her CBE, it\u2019s about how disgusting the whole thing is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Bates vs The Post Office follows the plight of the subpostmasters whose lives were affected by the scandal, with Toby Jones leading the cast as <\/span>Alan Bates<\/span><\/a>, a real-life subpostmaster from Wales who played a key role in the campaign to expose the faulty software.<\/span><\/p>\n Many other Post Office workers whose lives were affected also feature in the series, including Post Office employee <\/span>Angela van den Bogerd (Katherine Kelly)<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Lee Castleton (Will Mellor)<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p> On Monday (8th January), Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government is looking at the option of <\/span>exonerating all postmasters involved in the scandal<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Responding to Sunak\u2019s comments, Bates said on This Morning: \u201cHe really needs to ensure things happen now and they happen at real speed \u2013 not just at pace, which he has commented on recently.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no reason these things can\u2019t be sorted quickly if enough pressure is brought to bear and it\u2019s the compensation of the original people that fought the court case that needs resolving now. It\u2019s been going on for almost 20 years for a number of these people and they\u2019ve got to be able to get on with their lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Bates\u2019 partner Suzanne Sercombe, <\/span>who is played by Julie Hesmondhalgh in the ITV drama<\/span><\/a>, added: \u201cI\u2019m very disheartened personally that [Rishi Sunak] seems to be talking about it as something that\u2019s just from the past \u2013 the carry-over, the fallout is horrendous and it\u2019s been going on for years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Bates vs The Post Office arrives on 1st January at 9pm on ITV and ITVX. Check out more of our Drama<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want to visit Death in Paradise locations in Guadeloupe at a discount?\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times is offering savings of up to 7% for registered users booking their next holiday with travel website Expedia.\u00a0<\/strong>Claim your exclusive Radio Times Expedia holiday discount now<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n There had been pressure on the former Post Office boss to give up her honour in recent days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":43382,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/paula-vennells-to-hand-back-cbe-after-post-office-drama-fallout-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/paula-vennells-to-hand-back-cbe-after-post-office-drama-fallout-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/paula-vennells-to-hand-back-cbe-after-post-office-drama-fallout-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/paula-vennells-to-hand-back-cbe-after-post-office-drama-fallout-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/paula-vennells-to-hand-back-cbe-after-post-office-drama-fallout-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/paula-vennells-to-hand-back-cbe-after-post-office-drama-fallout-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/01\/paula-vennells-to-hand-back-cbe-after-post-office-drama-fallout-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"There had been pressure on the former Post Office boss to give up her honour in recent days.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/43381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lia](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/mrbatesvsthepostofficeep311-02c011b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"mr_bates_vs_the_post_office_ep3_11\\"\/")
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