Yesterday saw a full debate on the second reading of the Equitable Life (Payments) Bill, the bill that authorises the Treasury to spend money on compensation for Equality Life members. I had hoped to be able to speak, however despite sitting there patiently I wasn’t called by the Speaker, but did manage to intervene. My first intervention was a question to Mark Hoban, Financial secretary to the treasury, in which I reminded him that so many Conservative MPs have signed the EMAG pledge and how important it was that we bridged the gap between Chadwick and the ombudsman: Nadhim Zahawi: As we have heard, many of us have signed the Equitable Members Action Group pledge. There is a wide gap between what Sir John Chadwick and the ombudsman are saying. Does the Minister agree that it is our duty to bridge that gap in a satisfactory way? Otherwise, all the good will that he has achieved in the past few weeks will be spent and the victims of Equitable Life will end up feeling hard done by. Mark Hoban: I do not wish to repeat myself, but the important point is to honour the pledge that we all made and also to make sure that the settlement is fair to policyholders and taxpayers and consistent with all the recommendations that the ombudsman made. I also intervened as Stephen Timms, Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, tried to claim that the government had not acted fast enough: Nadhim Zahawi: I note that the shadow Minister opened his speech by saying that he had not spoken before on the subject of the anxiety of the victims and policyholders. Does he think that their anxiety was added to by the fact that, on 3 December 2008, the then Prime Minister told the House that there would be a statement on this matter before Christmas, but that that statement was not forthcoming? Stephen Timms: If I remember correctly, there was a statement in January 2009 in response to the ombudsman's report.