Dr Julian Lewis [Virtual]: May I appeal to the Government for a statement on the plight of people, many approaching retirement, with endowment mortgages that are due to mature in the middle of this covid crisis? Such a statement would give the Government the opportunity to urge companies such as the Prudential to extend the maturation date until normality returns and the yield enables people’s mortgages to be cleared in the usual way.

The Leader of the House of Commons (Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg): My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to refer to people with endowments and the difficulty that they face. Having spent a lifetime – before politics intervened – in financial services, I can say that there is never an obviously right time to redeem investments, so the difficulty would be the Government intervening and setting a new time and that time not necessarily being any better than the existing time. I think that my giving financial advice from the Dispatch Box would be singularly unwise, but I will take up his point with the Treasury.

NOTE: Written Questions pursuing this matter were asked on 5 May and 12 May.