Gordon Brown is under pressure to pay billions of pounds in compensation to the victims of the collapse of Equitable Life after a report found the Government guilty of serious failures in their handling of the company.
More than a million people lost up to half of their life savings after the Government gave the public a "wholly misleading picture" of the safety of their investments, the inquiry found.
Ministers should apologise for a "decade of regulatory failure" and set up a compensation fund within six months to ensure that victims of the collapse, thousands of whom are dying every year, are put "back into the position that they would have been in" if incompetence had not wrecked their investments, it says.
Ann Abraham, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, accuses financial regulators of failing to inform the public after the company - the world's oldest insurance operation - ran into trouble eight years ago.
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Equitable Life victims 'should get billions in compensation' - Telegraph*
Not before time. Theft on a grand scale by the government. Sort of thing you only expect in third world countries.