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8 months ago
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Henry Staunton had been the Post Office chairman since December 2022
The Post Office chairman has stepped down amid ongoing tensions after the Horizon IT scandal that saw hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said she and Henry Staunton "parted ways with mutual consent".
She said the Post Office was "rightfully under a heightened level of scrutiny at this time" and she "felt there was a need for new leadership".
An interim chair is expected to be appointed shortly.
Mr Staunton had been in the role at the state-owned company since December 2022.
Prior to this, he had worked on the board of companies ranging from ITV to WH Smith.
Mr Staunton's departure comes as the business is reeling from the fallout from the Horizon scandal, which has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
More than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty accounting software Horizon made it look as though money was missing from their shops.
Many of those affected were financially ruined.
The issue recently came to wider public attention after it was depicted in an ITV drama. and public anger led to the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells handing back her CBE.
Senior figures from the Post Office and the technology firm Fujitsu, which developed the Horizon software, are currently facing questions at a public inquiry over what happened.
