By Justin Madders

MP for Ellesmere Port

THE power of good quality television programmes to change attitudes to wrongdoing has never been better illustrated than by ITV’s ‘Mr Bates v the Post Office’.

As I reported in my column last week, many subpostmasters suffered injustices on a major scale over two decades because of the dogged intransigence of the Post Office hierarchy who cared far more about the reputation of the organisation they represented than for hundreds of people who were diligently working in Post Office branches across the UK on their behalf.

Many of those subpostmasters were wrongly accused of mishandling – and in some cases stealing – Post Office takings. They were hounded out of their jobs, deprived of their livelihoods and their savings, and some of them ended up behind bars.

A range of organisations have tried over the years to seek redress for the subpostmasters. They did sterling work but they did not capture the imagination of the public and, frankly, Government Ministers did not go far enough in challenging the Post Office line. All that has now changed.

So we must look forward to appropriate legislation coming before Parliament which MPs from all parties will want to support. We need to ensure that all subpostmasters are exonerated of wrongdoing and we need to be satisfied that proper compensation is awarded to everyone affected as swiftly as possible. The exoneration of all those found guilty in Court is an unprecedented step to take as it impinges on the independence of the judiciary, but such is the scale of injustice and the time that has passed since those injustices occurred that all political parties are willing to support this.

Turning now to international affairs, you may well have learned that the official Opposition in Parliament is backing targeted action to protect shipping and maritime security in the Red Sea.

Labour MPs strongly condemn attacks by Houthi rebels from Yemen who have been targeting commercial ships and threatening international trade routes, putting civilians and military personnel in serious danger.

We simply want these attacks to stop, so we have backed the UK’s participation in the work of a multi-national maritime protection force aimed at achieving that outcome, in line with a 14-nation joint statement issued courtesy of the United Nations.

Strikes that have been carried out have been both limited and targeted and everything possible has been done to protect civilian lives. All concerned are now taking steps to reduce the risk of wider escalation of problems in the region.

While in an ideal world it would have been better if the Government had been able to address Parliament before these attacks took place, we do have to recognise that sometimes that is not always possible.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, I am pleased that both the Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP, and the Shadow Development Minister, Lisa Nandy MP, have been in the region to argue the case for an immediate truce and ceasefire in the war in Gaza involving increased aid for the Palestinian people while stressing the need to minimise the risks of any escalation of the conflict.