Post Office Horizon IT cases ‘the greatest scandal I have ever seen’, says former senior judge – as it happened

Sir Anthony Hooper, the former senior judge who chaired the mediation panel in the early 2010s to try to resolve claims between the justice for subpostmasters campaign and the Post Office involving the Horizon IT system has described it as “the greatest scandal that I have ever seen”

Former MP James Arbuthnot, who is now a Conservative peer, told a public inquiry that the Post Office appeared to have been operating a “behind-the-scenes deception process” about the reliability of its faulty Horizon computer system.

Rishi Sunak has doubled down on the UK’s decision not to suspend arms sales to Israel, echoing foreign secretary David Cameron’s words from yesterday by saying that “none of our closest allies” have stopped existing export licences.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has renewed Labour’s calls for the government to publish its legal advice on Israel’s military action in Gaza, saying there were “real, deep, serious concerns” about the war.

Sir Anthony Hooper, the former senior judge who chaired the mediation panel in the early 2010s to try to resolve claims between the justice for subpostmasters campaign and the Post Office involving the Horizon IT system has described it as “the greatest scandal that I have ever seen”

Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/Stefan Rousseau / PA Sir Anthony Hooper is expressing great regret about the suffering of people due to the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, and has said over the years he has experienced many times that government won’t swiftly apologise and say “we are sorry, something has gone wrong” and move to put things right.