Justin Welby ‘should stand down’ over claims he backed Paula Vennells to be Bishop of London

Queen Elizabeth II’s former chaplain has called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign amid suggestions he backed the disgraced former postmaster general to be bishop of London.

Paula Vennells, who was chief executive of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, handed over her CBE last week.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted after faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear that money was missing from their sites.

Fewer than 100 convictions have been overturned so far in what has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history.

Last week it emerged that Ms Vennells had been shortlisted to become Bishop of London in 2017 – the third most important role in the Church of England after the Archbishops of Canterbury and York – despite suggestions that sub-postmasters were being closely watched wrong that appeared at that time.

Church sources claim that the Most Reverend Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has personally endorsed Ms Vennells’ candidacy.

The late Queen’s former chaplain, Canon Jeremy Haselock, an associate priest at Great St Bartholomew’s in the City of London, criticized the alleged support, writing on social media: “Surely this is where Welby needs to go. Another demonstration of his total lack of common sense.”

In the post, seen by The Telegraph, he added: “His support for this woman for the episcopate shows how completely he fails to understand the nature of that office.

“His total failure to bring pastoral care to the fore during the pandemic and the disastrous decisions he made at the time show his complete and utter lack of understanding of the Church and its ministry. He was a terrible primate and collecting the GCVO (Royal Victorian Order), he should go.”

The Rev Canon Haselock was appointed Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen in 2013, a title he held until 2021.

Ms Vennells was ordained a priest in 2006 and was an associate minister in the Diocese of St Albans, while running the post office.

She was interviewed for the role of Bishop of London in 2017. By 2015, the Post Office had already stopped prosecutions against postal sub-castes, and in 2017 legal action was launched against her by a group of 555 sub-postmasters after a long period. campaign.

Church sources said the Archbishop of Canterbury had backed Ms Vennells’ candidacy, with one saying: “I heard Welby pushed for her. It appears that the meeting of the Crown Nominations Committee in 2017 was quite fortuitous as Paula had no parish experience and was a self-supporting minister.

“Over the last 10 years the church has become more of a business model, so the whole idea of ​​Paula Vennells being Justin Welby’s alleged favorite candidate ties into the whole business of the church under his reign.”

Another source said the archbishop was known to support Ms Vennells, who sat on the church’s ethical investment advisory group, adding: ‘Justin was close to her. He was always very supportive of her when he was a member of the Church of England’s ethical investment advisory committee.”

On Tuesday, Ms Vennells said she would surrender her CBE for services to charity and the Post Office amid the ongoing fallout from the Horizon scandal. More than 1.2 million people have signed a petition calling for her to be stripped.

In a statement, she said: “I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the postmasters and their families, whose lives have been torn apart by being wrongfully accused and wrongfully prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.”

Lambeth Palace declined to comment.

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