Ed Davey: I never considered quitting as Lib Dem leader after Horizon scandal backlash

Former postal affairs minister faces claims that he arranged to meet Alan Bates to avoid bad publicity

Sir Ed Davey has insisted that he never considered quitting as leader of the Liberal Democrats amid anger at his role in the Horizon scandal.
The politician, who served as postal affairs minister from May 2010 to February 2012, has faced criticism since it emerged that he turned down a request to meet Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster whose fight for justice inspired the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, in May 2010.
Sir Ed later met with him in October 2010, but has been forced to deny claims that he arranged the meeting to avoid bad publicity.
The Liberal Democrat leader faced a backlash after originally failing to apologise to sub-postmasters, amid calls for him to return his knighthood and to resign from his position.
Asked whether he had considered quitting in light of public anger towards him and possible political damage to the party, he told BBC Radio 4: “Not at all.
“Not only has this party done spectacularly well in by-elections, in local elections across the whole country, but when I go out there campaigning, we’re finding incredible results in seats that only we can beat the Conservatives in.”
In response to whether he would stand down, he said: “Not at all, indeed, the party is very keen for us to fight this election really hard under my leadership.”
He has also denied that he met Mr Bates to avoid bad publicity, after the BBC reported that documents had emerged showing that Sir Ed was advised to meet the campaigner for “presentational reasons”.
He told the Today programme: “That’s what the officials put in the submission to me just before the meeting, but I wanted to meet him because after his second letter, I thought I should hear his concerns, which I did and I took them very seriously and the document the BBC have got is the advice for the meeting.
“So the decision to have the meeting was taken previously.”
Asked why the meeting took place just five months after it was requested, Sir Ed said: “I’ve apologised for that because initially, I was advised that because the Post Office is not run by the Government and the minister doesn’t get involved in day to day decisions, I shouldn’t meet him.
“But with his second letter when he expressed those concerns, of course, I wanted to meet him and when I put those concerns to the Post Office concerns about the Horizon IT system. I’m afraid I was lied to.”
Sir Ed was challenged on whether he could have ordered an investigation into Horizon. He responded: “Well, I asked the questions and the evidence that I got from the Post Office from officials was there was nothing wrong with the Horizon system.”
He added that he had approached the National Federation of SubPostmasters to ask about the concerns raised: “I thought that they who were critical of the Post Office themselves in other areas, would tell me if there were concerns, and so the trade union was telling me that there was nothing to see here.”
At the end of January, the Liberal Democrats were polling below Reform UK at around 8 or 9 per cent, according to YouGov.