Gordon Banks

MP speaks up for constituents affected by Equitable Life collapse

Ochil & South Perthshire MP Gordon Banks was speaking up for constituents affected by the Equitable Life collapse in Parliament this week as the coalition government outlined details of a bill being brought to the house.

Mr Banks has been working with constituents to secure suitable compensation for those affected.

Mr Banks said – “This is such an important issue to the people who have been affected by it, and we do need a solution, but I worry that the solution we will get from the Government will bear no likeness to what they promised or intimated when they were in opposition.”

“The blame game is not really productive, as the events of the past decade have shown. We all know that the problem and its causes have spanned different Governments, and that there have been failures by all parties. I worry that we are being set up for another failure, and I do not want that to happen to my constituents.  This government shouldn’t hide behind the failures of the previous one on this issue.”

“Forgetting about the failings of the past, this is their opportunity to do right by those who have lost out, and their action should be moral, not party political. Ministers can stand up to Treasury officials and do what is right.”

“Many of the people affected are not rich. They span all walks of life, and they were doing the right thing by investing for their future. We need a commitment to help those people now, and we need costs to be allocated so that we understand the annual cost over, say, 10 years. However, we also need to be aware that about a third of the 1.5 million people affected had invested all their future in Equitable. “

“Some of those people have lost their homes and cars, and with them their dignity, and we should take the opportunity to restore that dignity. “

“I am concerned that the Treasury is going to impose a limit, in the hundreds of millions of pounds, that will not address the problem, fulfil our moral obligation or improve the hopes and ambitions of many of my constituents. “