Jane Davies, the former Post Office chief people officer who has made bullying and sexism claims against Post Office chief executive Nick Read, has alleged the company has misrepresented her whistleblowing evidence.
The Post Office had informed MPs on the business select committee in formal correspondence that a complaint made against Read contained several allegations against others including Henry Staunton, its former chairman.
However, the author of the “speak-up” document, Jane Davies, chief people officer between December 2022 and July 2023, has claimed that the statement was an attempt to mislead MPs on the business select committee.
Confirming that she had made the complaint, she said she had not mentioned Staunton. Read refutes the allegations against him.
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“The Post Office is misrepresenting [Davies’s] speak-up dossier,” her spokesman said. “It was not directed at anyone other than Nick Read.
“Any other names mentioned were incidental to the complaint about Nick. For the avoidance of doubt, Henry Staunton was not named in the document.”
Earlier this week the committee published a letter in which Staunton, who was sacked in January by business secretary Kemi Badenoch, accused Read of bullying and sexism, citing Davies’s complaint. Staunton said Davies “felt that she was being treated by Read and his henchmen as a ‘pain in the arse’ for focusing on tackling the toxic culture rather than prioritising Read’s salary”.
He added that she had told him the purpose of filing the complaint was “to express what she felt was the attitude of the chief executive to her as the only woman in the senior management team”.
The Post Office has accused Staunton of inaccuracies and said that Read was “fully cooperating” with a barrister-led investigation.
Staunton’s alleged interference in the investigation was cited by Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, as one of the reasons he was sacked.
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