Former National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) member George Thomson denied not having empathy for people unfairly convicted in the Post Office crisis, which resulted from flaws in the organization’s Horizon IT system.
It follows the TUC’s earlier claims this year that the Post Office had denied the Communication Workers Union (CWU) permission to organize there and that the Post Office had provided funding to the NFSP.
Mr. Thomson spoke on Friday at the Post Office inquiry. He was its general secretary from 2007 to 2018.
In response to Julian Blake’s question about whether he got “too close” to the Post Office, he said, “No, I wasn’t.”
Mr. Thomson subsequently stated: “We worked closely with the Post Office because we both needed to have a successful franchise – that’s the reality.”
An email detailing preparations for the Post Office and NFSP to negotiate a 15-year contract to represent all Post Office operators was shown to the committee on behalf of Mr. Thomson in August of 2013.
The annual payouts were set at £500,000 for 2013–14 and increased to £2.5 million for 2017–2028.
