Tory MP calls out Ed Davey over Post Office scandal

       Sir Ed Davey should "follow his own advice" and quit as Lib Dem leader over the Post Office scandal if he had "a shred of dignity", Lee Anderson and fellow Tory MPs have demanded.

       The calls for the Lib Dem leader to resign have intensified after a study of his Twitter feed showed that he had called on at least 12 others to resign on 31 occasions since April 2019 over mistakes or issues from their past.

       Among those he wanted to walk from their jobs were former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Robert Jenrick, Rishi Sunak, former Met chief Cressida Dick, Kwasi Kwarteng, Matt Hancock, Dominic Cummings, ex-BBC chairman Richard Sharp, Chris Grayling, Dame Priti Patel, Alok Sharma, and ex-minister Mark Field.

       But Sir Ed has clung on to his position as leader of the Lib Dems as the furore has grown over his failure to act to stop the trials of sub-postmasters on false claims when he was Minister for the Post Office in 2012 during the coalition government.

       He told Alan Bates - now the subject of an ITV biopic - that there was "no useful purpose" to holding a meeting about the issue as hundreds were being prosecuted on false evidence based on the defective Horizon computer programme. The miscarriage of justice saw hundreds wrongly jailed and there have been four suicides linked to the saga.

       Instead, Sir Ed has been accused by his critics of helping the Post Office to facilitate a cover-up by not taking the claims of the hundreds of victims of the miscarriage of justice seriously.

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       READ MORE: Ed Davey's credibility 'hanging by thread' with MPs fury at role in Post Office

       Lee Anderson is critical of Ed Davey (Image: Getty)

       Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson said: "As MPs, we all get cases from employees that have a grievance with their bosses. Even we lowly backbench MPs know there are two sides to every story which is why we reserve judgement until hearing all the facts.

       "Sir Ed Davey chose to believe the bosses not the workers without it seems hardly paying any attention to what the sub-postmasters were saying.

       "This whole debacle shows us the mettle of a man who appears not fit for purpose. If he had an ounce of dignity he would stand down at the next election. Perhaps a stint in a Post Office would do him good."

       Sir Ed has claimed he was "misled" by senior Post Office executives including former chief executive Paula Vennells who is facing demands to hand her CBE back.

       And former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has issued a defence of Sir Ed accusing the Conservatives of "weaponising" the scandal.

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       Tim Farron has defended Sir Ed (Image: Getty)

       But the defence has not been accepted by Conservative MPs.

       Serious questions are being asked why Sir Ed subsequently earned ￡275,000 from the legal firm which carried out the prosecutions for the Post Office.

       Brendan Clarke-Smith, another Conservative Party deputy chairman who worked for the Post Office as a desk clerk and whose father spent 40 years at the Post Office, insisted Sir Ed should resign.

       He told Express.co.uk: “Ed Davey certainly has some very difficult questions to answer this week and the vultures in his own party already appear to be circling.

       "As somebody who regularly calls for others to resign, he will quite understandably be under a lot of scrutiny to see whether he applies the same standards to himself or not.”

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       Meanwhile, veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil Tweeted: "Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has made regular calls for public figures to resign from major public posts — 31 such demands are on his Twitter/X account since April 2019.

       "Given what many see as his dereliction of duty in the sub-postmasters’ scandal he might look in the mirror for his 32nd. Just a thought."

       Independent former Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who was one of a few to pressurise ministers including Davey over the injustices, said: "If the Lib Dem leader held himself to the same standard he insists on others, he would be considering his own position, given the misery his neglect in office has caused hundreds of innocent sub postmasters."

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