Cumbria MP says Post Office recruitment hit by Horizon scandal

Graham Livesey runs Staveley Post Office, but is due to resign as sub-postmaster in July after he was angered by watching the ITV drama Mr Bates vs. the Post Office.

He said he would continue to run his shop, but Post Office services would be removed.

He had been trying to sell the business for years before deciding to resign.

“My partner and I put the business on the market in 2015 and we haven’t had a single viewing in nine years,” he said.

“I can only think that that’s due to the toxic attachment that the Post Office has and nobody wants to run a post office anymore.”

The Post Office said it was sorry to hear about his experience and it was advertising for a new sub-postmaster.

The company also said there was a “prospective new operator” for Shap and it hoped to be able to update people on plans for reopening “in the coming weeks”.

A spokesperson added: “We are the only retailer that actively seeks to replace branches that close in the exact or a location near to where a previous branch operated.

“We understand that this has been a difficult time for postmasters, but the Post Office continues to serve 10 million customers a week [and] our trading performance has and continued to exceed expectations.”