BURNLEY MP Peter Pike is going to pull his money out of the Halifax in protest at its conversion from a building society to a bank- but not before he claims his free shares.

The Labour backbencher told a debate on the Building Societies Bill that he was a member of several building societies.

He said: "I voted 'no' to the National and Provincial takeover by the Abbey National and to the Leeds takeover by the Halifax. I was one of the three per cent who voted no to the conversion of the Halifax.

"At the appropriate stage I shall remove my custom from it, but, if the shares are to come, I may as well take them first. I make no bones about that.

"I have been a Halifax customer for many years and I feel that I may as well take the shares even though I disagree with what has been done."

Mr Pike said everything that could be done to protect the mutual status of building societies must be done. And he accused the Abbey National of being the biggest predator in the financial sector, and highlighted the National and Provincial building society, formed by a merger of the Burnley and Provincial building societies

Mr Pike said: "It was supposed to be a merger but it was more like a takeover because everything was cleared out from Burnley in only a few years."

The N and P opted to remain a mutual society and opposed Abbey National's bid, with leading director Alistair Lyons and Lord Shuttleworth in the forefront.

But finally the Abbey National got its way, said Mr Pike, adding: "It is funny, is it not, that Alistair Lyons is now the executive director of Abbey National and chief executive of its subsidiary, Scottish Mutual Life, while Lord Shuttleworth is a deputy chairman.

"They did all right out of it, but was it what the customers wanted?"

Mr Pike said cash and share offers no doubt seduced many of his 46,000 constituents entitled to them because of the Burnley connection but he warned that, unless action was taken, speculators would travel round the country investing money in building societies here, there and everywhere to try and get windfall payments.

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