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Retail & Consumer

Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells quits boards of Morrisons and Dunelm

Short stock market announcements have been issued by the two companies this morning

Paula Vennells who had joined the Morrisons board as a non-executive director in 2016.(Image: Morrisons)

Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells has quit as a non-executive director of high street chains Morrisons and Dunelm in the wake of the subpostmaster miscarriage of justice scandal.

The two firms issued brief notes on the London Stock Exchange, saying she would be leaving the roles, which include responsibilities for setting executive pay and upholding corporate responsibility.

Ms Vennells took home £89,000 in fees from Morrisons and £30,000 from Dunelm in the past year, according to the latest published annual accounts.

Dunelm chairman Andy Harrison said: "We respect Paula's decision to step down from the board and I would like to thank her for the positive contribution she has made to the business since her appointment in September 2019."

Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson said: "Paula has been an insightful, effective and hardworking non-executive director, and, on behalf of the board, I want to thank her for her significant contribution over the last five years."

The moves came as the former Post Office boss said she is "truly sorry" for the "suffering" caused to subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences.

Ms Vennells, who is an associate minister in the Diocese of St Albans, issued the apology on Sunday as she announced that she would be stepping back from her regular church duties in the wake of the Horizon scandal.

Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office's defective Horizon accounting system, which had "bugs, defects and errors" from the very outset.