Mr Bates vs The Post Office: People asked to support Sussex branches amid boycott threats

The National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) is urging people to continue to support local post offices in Sussex after a ‘social media backlash’ to the ITV drama ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’.

“Several people have vowed to boycott post offices over the four-part series depicting the Horizon scandal, which is the biggest miscarriage of justice ever seen in the United Kingdom,” a spokesperson for the NFSP said.

"More than 700 postmasters across the United Kingdom were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, with some convicted and imprisoned. Post Office Ltd refused to entertain the idea that the fault was with Horizon.

“Whilst the general public have been outraged by what happened to the victims, the outpouring of negative feeling towards Post Office Ltd for their role in this scandal across social media may be detrimental to postmasters’ livelihoods by association.”

NFSP chief executive Calum Greenhow said the general public are ‘very empathetic towards us as postmasters’ but warned that they ‘may not realise’ that by boycotting Post Office Ltd, ‘they harm our businesses’.

He added: “I cannot be more delighted that the truth is finally being heard but saddened that it has taken 20 years of overcoming hurdles put in place by the leadership of this country and hundreds of millions of pounds of legal fees for that truth to finally come out.

“It is important to ensure that the general public are very much aware that as small businesspeople we want to remain at the heart of communities, serve them and support them as we always do."

The NFSP described post offices are the ‘beating heart of local communities’.

"Postmasters are investors in Post Office Ltd and 98 per cent of post offices are privately owned,” a spokesperson added.

"Many have life savings in their business, and they need the public’s continued support as postmasters have already been the most affected by this scandal.

“Post offices deliver vital services to the most vulnerable in communities: providing parcel and letter collection and despatch; access to cash, essential utilities plus banking and government services. Without the post office network, millions of people would be cut adrift from these vital services.”