News

Nigel joined hundreds of victims of the Equitable Life pensions scandal from across the country on Wednesday 4th November who gathered in Westminster to hold a highly visible protest rally against the Government’s handling of the issue.

The rally, organised by the Equitable Members Action Group (EMAG) used a fifteen coffins as visual props and carried banners stating:  ‘Another 15 equitable life pensioners died today waiting for justice’  to emphasise that while the Government drags its feet on a compensation scheme, victims of the scandal are dying.

Despite a highly critical report published earlier this year by the parliamentary ombudsman in which she called for the government to set up and fund a compensation scheme for the victims because of regulatory failings, a satisfactory compensation mechanism has still not been put in place.
The report stated that there was a series of regulatory failures that led to many policyholders suffering losses and that the Government should make payments to them because of this.

Dozens of pensioners from the three counties area joined in the demonstration including Anthony Musgrove, Luton chairman of EMAG, and Alan Hamilton of Luton EMAG.  They were joined by Vince Cable of the Liberal Democrats and TV star Honor Blackman.

Many of the Luton victims of this scandal have written to me over the last few months and the stories they tell of hardship are heart-rending. I joined the demonstration to show my personal support for the victims of this Government’s dithering, and to commit that my party will be putting sustained pressure on the Government to move quickly and resolve this matter and compensate the victims as the Ombudsman requested.