PA
Demands for Alan Bates to receive a knighthood for his decades-long fight for justice for subpostmasters hit by the Horizon scandal has received backing from Downing Street.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday it would be “common sense” to honour the crusading former subpostmaster after a mass quashing of convictions was announced.
Mr Bates is said to have refused an OBE while former Post Office boss Paula Vennells still held the CBE she received deep into the scandal in 2019.
But MPs and campaigners have called for Mr Bates’s honour to be re-submitted now that Ms Vennells has agreed to relinquish hers in the face of a public outcry.
Senior minister Esther McVey said she wants to see Mr Bates knighted “as soon as possible”.
“Anybody can nominate him and I’m quite sure we will see Sir Alan as soon as possible,” the Tory MP told GB News.
The Prime Minister’s press secretary argued that it is “hard to think of someone more deserving of being rewarded through the honours system than him”.
Asked if she agreed about the knighthood with Ms McVey, who is nicknamed the “minister for common sense”, the official said: “That sounds like common sense to me.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is also backing the move.
His spokesman said: “I think Alan Bates clearly has emerged as a hero throughout this for the way in which he has led the campaign, the fortitude and resolve he was shown given everything that has been thrown at him throughout this process.
“Obviously honours have their own independent process, but I’m sure that is something the public would regard as entirely appropriate and we would support.”
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