Equitable Life policyholders - badly treated by Labour
24th March 2010
Government should accept Ombudsman's recommendations for a compensation scheme.
As a Parliamentary Candidate, one of the regular topics of correspondence from Waveney's residents is from policyholders of Equitable Life, who have been so badly treated by this Labour Government.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman, an independent arbiter, ruled eighteen months ago that the Government should make payments to policyholders who have suffered losses as a consequence of the Government's failure to regulate Equitable Life properly.
From the outset, Conservatives accepted the Ombudsman's recommendations that there should be a scheme to deal with the losses suffered by policyholders, that payments should reflect relative and not absolute loss [i.e. take in to account market performance], and that the impact on the public purse should be taken in to account in the design of a scheme.
Yet Gordon Brown has failed Equitable policyholders and sought at every stage of the process to block, frustrate and delay justice for policyholders. In a debate in the House of Commons on 16th March, Labour MPs did so again. With Bob Blizzard, acting in his role of Government Whip, they all voted against a motion calling for the Government to set a clear timetable for implementing the Ombudsman's recommendations and remedying the injustice suffered by policyholders.
It is disappointing that Gordon Brown's MPs are blocking a fair remedy, but I can assure readers of the Journal that a Conservative Government is committed to ensure justice for Waveney's policyholders.
Peter Aldous, Conservative
Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney
