Politicians have put aside their rivalries to fight for justice for nearly 1,000 Luton pensioners hit by the collapse of Equitable Life almost a decade ago.

Policyholders across the town saw the value of their investments slashed by up to half in 2000 when the company said it did not have enough money to honour investors' pensions.

Campaigners say up to 15 Equitable Life members on average are dying each day while waiting for the government, which should have prevented the collapse, to pay them compensation. Critics say the delay is deliberate so that fewer payouts will have to be made, but ministers say calculating the payouts is a lengthy process.

At a rally at Westminster, Luton North Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins and the prospective Conservative candidate for Luton South, Nigel Huddleston, gave their support to the campaign to speed up the compensation process.

Mr Hopkins was among the 350 MPs who signed a recent cross-party Early Day Motion calling on the government to accept a recommendation by parliamentary ombudsman Ann Abraham to pay out £4 billion in compsensation to Equitable Life members.

He said: "The ombudsman has reported that the onus should be on the government to compensate those who have lost out, and I agree wholeheartedly.

"The problem is that every week there are people dying without being compensated."

Victims in Luton are being represented by a local committee of the Equitable Members Action Group (EMAG), chaired by Anthony Musgrove.
Mr Musgrove, who was at the rally, said he was pleased to see the campaign receiving cross-party support.

"The strength of feeling by the pension victims was evident in the rally and by MPs of all parties, for which we are very grateful," he said.

"We hope that the government will now fully accept the recommendations of its own ombudsman and finally deliver justice for our members and policyholders."

Nigel Huddleston said he had received many letters from Luton pensioners affected by the scandal asking for his help.

He said: "The stories they tell of hardship are heart-rending. I joined the demonstration to show my personal support for the victims of this government's dithering, and to commit that my party will be putting sustained pressure on the government to move quickly and resolve this matter and compensate the victims as the ombudsman requested.

"The report stated that there was a series of regulatory failures that led to many policyholders suffering losses and that the government should make payments to them because of this."