Members of the European Parliament attacked the UK Government yesterday for its failure to respond to the 373-page report on Equitable Life published by the parliament's committee of inquiry last June, which calls for a compensation scheme for policyholders.
"One would think the UK was not a member of the European Union," said the former chair of the committee, the Irish MEP Mairéad McGuiness, as she backed the view of the report's author Diana Wallis, the LibDem MEP, that the government had "failed in its duty of loyal cooperation".
Robert Atkins, a Conservative MEP, described as an "utter disgrace" the Prime Minister's failure even to acknowledge a letter sent to him on the subject on December 6 by the European Parliament's president Hans-Gert Pöttering.
Michael Cashman MEP, deputy chair of the parliament's petitions committee and a confidant of Gordon Brown, called on the UK to agree to implement the recommendations of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, which when finally published may urge a compensation scheme for investors.
Cashman, speaking as the committee reconvened yesterday to try to put pressure on the UK Government, said: "I support fully the fact that we should have an early meeting and seek this concrete proposal and agreement that the Parliamentary Ombudsman's recommendations will be implemented. That seems to be the fair and just resolution."
Paul Braithwaite, secretary of Equitable Members' Action Group, which raised the original petition in 2004, told the committee: "It is important to realise that the UK Government is in a legal dispute with the Parliamentary Ombudsman on a matter of great constitutional importance. In essence it has argued that the role of the PO is merely advisory to government ministers and that the findings cannot be binding'."
He added: "Equitable sufferers are understandably embittered at the stark contrast between their quest for justice, which remains unaddressed after seven years, and the protection of Northern Rock's investors having been set up within seven days."
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