DISGRACED ex-Post Office chief Paula Vennells should “seriously consider handing back” her CBE voluntarily, a Tory minister said today, as victims of the Horizon IT scandal demanded that the government “gets moving with payments.”

Post Office CEO from 2012 to 2019, Vennells was awarded a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours list for services to the organisation.

She previously apologised for the suffering caused to sub-postmasters after 39 workers’ convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2021.

Postal workers’ union CWU said on X, formerly Twitter: “The CWU has been calling for Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE from the moment it was awarded.

“The horizon scandal is sickening and one of the biggest injustices this country has ever seen.”

Today, postal minister Kevin Hollinrake told ITV’s GMB programme: “I think that matter needs to be looked at.

“I’ve got to say, if I was Paula Vennells: ultimately you’ve got responsibility for what happened, you are the chief executive.

“If I was Paula Vennells I would seriously consider handing that [CBE] back voluntarily.”

He added: “But we've got an inquiry... looking at all the evidence.

“It will report and that should identify who is responsible, in the Post Office or indeed potentially in Fujitsu, and those people wherever possible should be held to account.”

“That seems reasonable to me,” he added, when asked whether any individual whose lies or dishonesty has led to innocent person going to jail should be prosecuted.

Former business secretary Grant Shapps said he hoped “most cases can be resolved before the end of 2023” in December 2022.

But Mr Hollinrake told the programme that hundreds of payouts were yet to be finalised, insisting that the process and claims were “highly complex” and said the government had committed to a August 7 deadline for making offers.

The scandal, described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history, saw more than 700 branch managers wrongfully prosecuted for stealing by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015.

Scandal victim turned justice campaigner Alan Bates said: “Get moving with the compensation. Don’t extend the deadline for payments because you can’t extend people’s lives.”

The Department for Business and Trade said last month that 93 convictions have so far been overturned while the first 27 claims have agreed full and final settlements.