Gillian Keegan: my husband will give evidence at Post Office inquiry
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Gillian Keegan has promised that her husband will give evidence to the Post Office Horizon inquiry if asked as she discussed his involvement for the first time.
Michael Keegan is a former head of Fujitsu, the Japanese company that made the faulty accounting software that led to hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongly convicted of fraud.
After leaving Fujitsu in 2018, Mr Keegan went on to a role at the Cabinet Office, where he oversaw the state’s relationship with BAE Systems, a weapons manufacturer.
He stepped down last month amid renewed public outcry over the Horizon scandal following the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which follows a two-decade campaign for justice led by Alan Bates, one of the sub-postmasters who was affected.
Asked by LBC’s Nick Ferrari about whether her husband would appear before the inquiry, the Secretary of State for Education said: “He has said he would give evidence.
“Actually, the stage of the inquiry that they are at now, they’ve just published a list, I think, of 68 people who they think can answer the questions for the governance and everything that happened, and he’s actually not on that list.
“So they haven’t asked him. But he would, absolutely.”
Pressed on why Mr Keegan had given up his Cabinet Office role, the Chichester MP said: “Well, he’s doing a PhD. That’s his main thing.
“He’s doing a PhD and he’s getting to the sort of final bit of it, and that’s what his passion is.”
Mr Keegan is studying a doctorate in war studies at King’s College London, where he recently completed a master’s degree.
His profile on the university website says his thesis is focused on re-assessing the career of Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, who was heavily involved in failed operations against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.
List of senior witnesses
Mr Keegan has denied any wrongdoing and said that the only decision he made on Horizon was to cancel a tender for a new version of the software.
He has also insisted he only ever had one conversation with Paula Vennells, the shamed former Post Office boss, and that the pair never discussed the issue.
The fourth out of six phases of the official inquiry is now “substantially” complete, but evidence is yet to be heard from a small number of witnesses including Gareth Jenkins.
Mr Jenkins is understood to have been instrumental in developing the software as a senior computer engineer at Fujitsu.
The inquiry has also published the list of names mentioned by Mrs Keegan of senior witnesses who have been called to give evidence in its concluding stages.
These include Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader and a former postal minister who has come under fire for initially refusing to meet Mr Bates, only later holding talks with him.
Pat McFadden, a Labour frontbencher who also held the role, and Sir Simon Clarke, a former Tory minister, are also on the list.
