Equitable Life

Heather Wheeler Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con) [V]]

I am afraid we are all here again, having another debate about Equitable Life and the dreadful way that our constituents have been dealt with. To begin with, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), my dear friend, for being so assiduous over this matter and for his continued chairmanship of the APPG. I congratulate the Backbench Business Committee on agreeing to have this debate today, even though it has been delayed for so long. However, I am very glad that we are here again—albeit unbelievably here again, and I see the poor Minister on the Front Bench yet again having to reply. We will hear some calm words from him later, I am sure.

The facts are so well known: 895,000 people have suffered dreadfully through no fault of their own, and the pre-1992 people are excluded as well. This is just a dreadful history of the bad leading the bad, and we hope that the good story that could come out of this really will be listened to by the Treasury. None of us is in a position to chuck money around, but ultimately, we all know that with these people, who are getting older, when the possibility of another £2 billion actually comes down to them and to their families, that money will be recycled straightaway into all our communities and the Treasury will get it back in VAT or whatever way possible.

I am not going to go on, Madam Deputy Speaker, because I know that lots of people want to speak. But on behalf of Michael, Colin, Tim, Kevin, Agnes and Peter, Tom, Patricia and Bob, Neville and Colin—dear constituents of mine who are suffering very, very badly—I really do want to see some wriggle room from our dear friend the Minister on the Front Bench. I sincerely hope that in the mix of conversations that are going on in the Treasury, particularly over the issues of these miscalculations, the fact that people had to appeal themselves, and the rise from 50-odd quid to 8,000 quid, it sees that it is a nonsense and that this pain needs to stop. I will finish there. The good people of South Derbyshire need to know that the Treasury is listening.