Equitable Life

Jenny Willott Excerpts

Thursday 26th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman]

I thank my hon. Friend for his suggestion. The Chancellor will be listening to such rumours, and will no doubt want to hoover up that money to dispense for appropriate good causes, of which this is clearly one.

[Jenny Willott (Cardiff Central) (LD)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that people have been pushed into an extremely difficult position, and that some of them are extremely close to poverty as a result of the amount they have lost? In many cases, they are not at an age at which there is anything they can do to replace the funds they have lost. They face a very uncertain future, as they have for many years, but there is absolutely nothing they can do to make a difference.

[Bob Blackman]

I do not normally agree with the right hon. Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Frank Dobson), but he has said:

“They were not like the people who put their savings into outfits offering dubious and extraordinary returns, such as those who decided to chance their savings with the Icelandic banks. The Equitable policyholders are in their current position through absolutely no fault of their own.”—[Official Report, 14 September 2010; Vol. 515, c. 781.]

He went on to say that those at fault were Equitable Life, the Government and the regulator.