She took on Goldfinger – now she faces new 'villain'

Published on Wednesday 4 November 2009 20:20

ACTRESS Honor Blackman took part in a protest yesterday to demand compensation from the UK government for policyholders who lost money in Equitable Life.

The former Avengers star and Bond girl joined fellow policyholders and MPs – including the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable – to present petitions to the House of Commons calling for those affected to be given proper levels of redress.

Protesters also stacked 15 coffins, to symbolise the number of policyholders who die each day without receiving redress.

Ann Abraham, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, had called on the UK government to set up an independent tribunal to calculate compensation for policyholders, after finding ten instances of maladministration by regulators and Whitehall officials in relation to Equitable in the period leading up to December 2001.

But the government rejected some of her findings, saying instead it would make ex-gratia payments to policyholders "disproportionately affected" by the problems at the society.

However, the High Court ruled the Treasury had been wrong to reject certain specific findings by the ombudsman, following a challenge brought by the Equitable Members Action Group (Emag).

Blackman, who says the value of her Equitable Life pension has halved as a result of its troubles, said: "We did the right thing to provide for our retirement and look what happened. I know that many of the people joining us here today have been far more badly affected, and I want to show my support for Emag's campaign for justice."

Equitable Life was brought to its knees in 2000 when it lost a legal battle in the House of Lords over the rights of its policyholders, forcing it to close to new business.

Worth 26 billion in its prime, it now has some 200,000 with-profits policyholders and a 5.95bn with-profits fund.

Equitable Life said it supported the campaign by Emag and called on the UK government to publish a timetable for compensating policyholders.

Chris Wiscarson, its chief executive, said: "Policyholders deserve fair UK government compensation and they deserve it urgently. Setting a deadline for payments to policyholders is absolutely crucial. Our policyholders are entitled to closure."