'He's not authentic' | Post Office ex-HR chief says CEO led efforts to 'defame & ostracise' her after pay row

The former head of HR at the Post Office was subjected to a “deliberate campaign to defame and ostracise” her after the CEO grew angry at his pay rise offer, MPs have heard.

Jane Davies, the company’s former Group Chief People Officer, says Chief Executive Nick Read ‘regarded her as a failure’ for failing to secure a satisfactory pay packet increase. Read was “obsessed” with his pay and even threatened to resign unless it was increased, Davies claimed.

Such was this obsession with securing a pay rise, that Davies felt unable to fulfil her goals of redressing the company’s culture in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal, she claimed.

The allegations were made by Davies in a damning letter to the Government’s Business Select Committee, which was released publicly earlier this week. The committee has been hearing evidence on the Post Office in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.