It’s only a minor point, but it speaks to integrity, so I’m going to make it.

Nick Read – current Post Office chief executive – has been “accused” of describing certain people within the organisation as “untouchables”. During his first day of evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry Read denied using the term, despite senior people within the Post Office claiming they heard him use it more than once. This is the exchange between Read and Jason Beer KC, who was asking the questions on behalf of the Inquiry:

JB: Have you ever referred to […] people as the “untouchables”?
NR: No I haven’t.
JB: Mr Staunton [former Post Office chair], at paragraph 107 [in his witness statement] and on 1 October, when he gave evidence to us, page 109, line 7, states that you used the term to him, both privately and in a meeting; is he incorrect?
NR: He is incorrect.
JB: Mr Ismail [Post Office Non-Executive Director] says that you used the term “untouchables” to refer to some individuals within Post Office in two contexts: in a private NED-only meeting and in a Board meeting; is he incorrect?
NR: He is.
JB: Mr Jacobs [Post Office Non-Executive Director] said that you used the term in the context of a NED-only meeting; is he incorrect?
NR: Yes, he is.

Either Staunton, Ismail and Jacobs are lying on oath to the Inquiry or they are sorely mistaken, or Read has a false recollection of his use of the term or is lying on oath to the Inquiry.

Later in his evidence, Read appeared to resile from his confidently stated and repeated denial of using the word “untouchables” when Beer read out emails from Saf Ismail and Elliot Jacobs in which they noted Read’s use of the term “untouchable” in reference to Ben Foat, the Post Office’s then General Counsel, Martin Roberts, the Post Office’s then Group Chief Retail Officer, and John Bartlett, the Post Office’s then Director of Investigations and Assurance.

Beer said: “You’ll see that both emails refer to you referring to the three men or some of them in a call that day as “untouchable”; did you do so?”

Read replied: “My recollection of this is being very, very clear that no one in the business is untouchable. I don’t know if I used the word “untouchable” but no one is above the law, and that is really important.”

Hmm.

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