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The 2024 Brit Awards ceremony kicked off with a surprise appearance from former postmistress Jo Hamilton who was impacted by the Horizon scandal. <\/p>\n
The biggest night in British music took place on Saturday night (2 March)at the O2 Arena in London, where artists were honoured for their achievements this past year.<\/p>\n
Dua Lipa, Rob Beckett, and Ellie Goulding were among the celebrities who made their way across the red carpet ahead of the star-studded ceremony, which was hosted by Love Island\u2019s Maya Jama and Clara Amfo. <\/p>\n
You can find a full list of winners here, and follow along with all the latest updates from the event at The Independent\u2019s live-blog here.<\/p>\n
The honour of presenting the first award of the night, for Best Song, was given to former postmistress Jo Hamilton and actor Monica Dolan, who played Hamilton in ITV\u2019s Mr Bates vs The Post Office.<\/p>\n
The pair were welcomed on stage by Amfo, who asked the audience to show their \u201clove\u201d to them both.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to thank everybody in the country literally for the love and support they\u2019ve given the postmasters,\u201d said Hamilton. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlease could you keep on supporting us,\u201d she continued. \u201cBecause in spite of what the government says, they are not paying the postmasters. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
(ITV)<\/p>\n
Hamilton is one of hundreds of subpostmasters and postmistresses who were falsely convicted of offences including theft, false accounting, and fraud in the Post Office scandal.<\/p>\n
More than 700 branch managers around the UK were prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 when the faulty Horizon accounting software led to false accusations of stolen money from their shops.<\/p>\n
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Their campaign for justice was thrust into the spotlight last year, with the series sparking public outrage.<\/p>\n
Last week, Alan Bates \u2013 who was played by Toby Jones in the series, and who led the campaign for justice \u2013 told MPs that he can see \u201cno end\u201d to the scandal, as the government admitted that it was still failing to meet its own targets on payouts.<\/p>\n
Bates, who previously rejected an initial \u201ccruel\u201d offer of compensation, said that the government should \u201cget on and pay people\u201d. <\/p>\n
Alan Bates <\/p>\n
(Lucy North\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing and this has been going on for years, as you well know, and I can\u2019t see any end to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, it was also announced that hundreds of postmasters will have their names cleared under new legislation unveiled by the government.<\/p>\n
The new law will come into effect by the end of July and follows prime minister Rishi Sunak\u2019s announcement earlier this year that convictions would be quashed.<\/p>\n
At the time, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said the \u201cunprecedented intervention\u201d will \u201cdeliver long overdue justice to postmasters\u201d. <\/p>\n
On stage at the Brits, Dolan and Hamilton presented the award for Best Song to R&B artist RAYE for her track \u201cEscapism\u201d with 070 Shake. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to Roisin O\u2019Connor\u2019s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things musicGet our Now Hear This email for free The 2024 Brit Awards ceremony kicked off with a surprise appearance from former postmistress Jo Hamilton who was impacted by the Horizon scandal. The biggest night in British music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n