Toby Jones, star of the ITV drama, and BBC director-general Tim Davie (Image: ITV/PA)

       The BBC, not ITV, should have made the acclaimed drama which has shone a spotlight on the Post Office scandal, an outspoken critic has said.

       But former Brexit Party MEP Rupert Lowe has said he was not surprised by the fact that the corporation did not do so, given his belief that it is a “self-important monopoly”.

       The docudrama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, charts a two-decade battle by Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, to expose a miscarriage of justice which saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully accused of theft because of a faulty computer system.

       Since it was broadcast last week, the UK Government has been considering whether to offer a mass amnesty to more than 700 branch managers convicted between 1999 and 2015.

       READ MORE: EU crony Donald Tusk accused of trying to destroy Polish democracy

       Mr Bates vs The Post Office: Toby Jones stars in ITV drama

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       Meanwhile, ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells has said she will hand back the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire which she received in 2018 after an online petition calling for her to be stripped of the honour attracted more than 1.2 million supporters.

       Mr Lowe, who has campaigned for the scrapping of the BBC’s annual licence fee, told Express.co.uk: “Isn’t this exactly the sort of thing the money they get intended to pay for?

       “Their remit is to inform, educate and entertain and this drama does all three of those things.”

       He continued: “The BBC is a sclerotic, socialist, self-important monopoly.

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       Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells has agreed to return her CBE (Image: Getty)

       “It’s unsurprising that they showed no intellectual appetite to uncover this wrong which festered among the British Establishment for years.”

       Meanwhile plans to clear the names of hundreds of Post Office branch managers wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal are to be announced "imminently".

       Rishi Sunak will face MPs for Prime Minister's Questions and is under pressure to set out how the Government will exonerate those unfairly prosecuted.

       The Government says compensation has been paid to more than 2,700 claimants, but hundreds were also prosecuted over shortfalls in their branches caused by software errors.

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       Rupert Lowe is a former Brexit Party MEP and now Reform UK's business spokesman (Image: GETTY)

       Another 130 people have come forward after an ITV show dramatised what has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history, postal services minister Kevin Hollinrake said today.

       Mr Hollinrake said the Government is "very, very close" to announcing its plans to override the convictions, with an announcement "possibly" coming as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

       He told Sky News he could not promise a "particular timeframe" because a decision "has not been finalised".

       A BBC Spokesperson told Express.co.uk: "The BBC has consistently investigated and reported on the Post Office scandal for over a decade – highlighting the human cost and devastating impact on those wrongfully convicted of fraud, as well as investigating how those responsible were not being held accountable. Any suggestion otherwise is wildly inaccurate.

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       "BBC journalist Nick Wallis was one of the first journalists to break the story over ten years ago. He then fronted a Radio 4 and podcast series – The Great Post Office Trial - about his investigations. As well as ongoing reporting on the scandal, there have been three investigations by BBC Panorama - Trouble at the Post Office in 2015, Scandal at the Post Office in 2020 and The Post Office Scandal in 2022, and a BBC Radio 4 File on 4 investigation A First Class Scandal in 2020."

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