Diana: Hypocrisy of Brown's rhetoric on the need for global regulation of the world's financial markets

6.52.26pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 6th Oct 2008

In a letter to The Times Diana Wallis MEP has accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy over his recent rhetoric on the need for global regulation of the world's financial markets. The letter in full:

Dear Sir,

Am I the only one to be struck by the hypocrisy of Mr Brown's recent rhetoric on the need for global regulation of the world's financial markets? The strange thing is that we have actually had stronger international regulation of financial markets and banks through the EU. The only problem is, (as the victims in the Equitable Life affair have found out) that the Labour government, with Mr. Brown at the Treasury, and its Tory predecessors failed to properly implement this regulation or abide by it.

Perhaps then, if this new conversion to supranational regulation is genuine, we can now expect, after waiting over a year, a full and positive answer to the European Parliament's report into the demise of Equitable Life and of course our own UK Parliamentary Ombudsman's report which arrived at much the same conclusions?

Diana Wallis MEP Vice-President of the European Parliament

Rapporteur of the Parliament's report into Equitable Life