Burstow - There's nothing equitable about the Government's decision

6.00.00pm GMT Thu 15th Jan 2009

Paul Burstow, MP for Sutton and Cheam, expressed outrage today at both the Government and the Conservatives for their handling of the Equitable Life scandal.

Today the Government made a statement in which they said that those who had suffered 'a disproportionate impact' would be compensated, without detailing how this would be calculated or when people would receive payouts.

Last year the Government were urged by the Parliamentary Ombudsman and MPs on the Public Administration Select Committee to set up a compensations scheme for savers and to apologise to Equitable's savers. Today the Government said that to comply with those suggestions would take too long and would not meet their target for completion within two and a half years. However they did not give any indication of how much longer it would have taken or when they are expecting their proposed compensation payments to go out.

Mr Burstow, speaking after hearing the statement in the Commons, said:

'Hard pressed policyholders have been waiting far too long for this Government to announce it's decision on Equitable Life, but having heard it today things are not much clearer. Policy holders are now left wondering if they'll be judged to have been disadvantaged enough to deserve compensation. They are not looking for charity but justice.

'It seems thoroughly unfair that conditions are being attached to compensation for Equitable savers which don't apply to Icesave investors, despite the fact that the latter represented a more riskier investment.

'I'm outraged that the Conservative spokesman did not see fit to apologise for their role in this debacle. It has been shown that Equitable was in trouble from 1990 and that a failure in regulation led to the disaster that followed. I had hoped the Tories would've seen fit to take responsibility for that.