A Cabinet minister has rejected the suggestion that the Treasury was slow to pay compensation to the victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal when Rishi Sunak was chancellor. 

Mel Stride said that was not a “fair charge at all” and insisted that on Mr Sunak’s watch payments had been expedited “quickly and promptly”. 

Asked if it was fair to suggest that the Treasury had been slow to open its cheque book, the Work and Pensions Secretary told Times Radio: “No, I don’t think that is a fair charge at all. In fact I think when Rishi Sunak was there my understanding is that he expedited payments quickly and promptly. 

“I think in fact on his watch about £27million was paid out at that particular point. So no, I don’t accept that.” 

Ministers are drawing up plans to speed up the clearing of the names of hundreds of subpostmasters who were wrongfully convicted in the Post Office scandal.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 postmasters were prosecuted after faulty accounting software made it look like money was missing from their sites. To date, fewer than 100 convictions have been overturned.

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