St Albans protesters pressure Government on Equitable Life collapse

LIBERAL Democrat would-be MP Sandy Walkington was among protesters who converged on Westminster today to pressure the Government into providing compensation for victims of the Equitable Life collapse.

Mr Walkington revealed he was among the policy holders who lost out when the firm went bust several years ago.

He said: "My own loss was quite tiny but I am here to support the victims including the 15 pensioners dying every day who lost their hard-earned money.

"The Government are ignoring the Ombudsman's report which recommends compensation for the victims yet the people who lost money when the Icelandic banks went down were looked after. It makes no sense."

Mr Walkington joined members of the local branch of the Equitable Members Action Group (EMAG) outside the Houses of Parliament for a demo featuring 15 coffins to symbolise the victims who died before justice could be done. Also present were actress Honor Blackman, Vince Cable, David Davies and other politicians to address the crowd.

He said: “Justice delayed is justice denied. Already 30,000 Equitable pensioners have died without being compensated for sometimes considerable financial loss as a result of government regulatory failure. It seems the the Government is only too ready to reward totally irresponsible bankers and bail them out with vast sums of our money. It is another game entirely when it comes to ordinary citizens who have been thoroughly responsible in seeking to provide for their old age and have been let down by the people who should have blown the whistle and didn’t.”

St Albans MP MP Anne Main was due to meet the group to whom she has pledged her support.

There are more than 1,100 Equitable Life individual policy holders in St Albans.