Former Post Office boss to return CBE following public outrage

It comes after more than 1.2 million people signed a petition urging the government to strip her of the gong, following the four-part drama which highlighted the injustice in the scandal.

Less than a week ago the petition attracted 100,000 signatures after the dram started to air. It had just 1,000 backers when initially set up three years ago.

Some 736 sub-postmasters and mistresses were convicted of fraud and theft between 1999 and 2015, due to accounting errors created by the IT system.