Insurers branded slow and insensitive over riot claims

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has defended its members over accusations that insurers have been too slow in compensating victims of last year’s riots.

According to the BBC, Tottenham MP David Lammy and Sir William Castell, chairman of The High Street Fund, a charity set up to provide emergency funding for small businesses struggling in the aftermath of the riots, criticised the insurance industry at a London Assembly committee.

Mr Lammy described insurers’ behaviour as “woeful” and said there had been a lack of sensitivity towards people for whom English was a second language.

Sir William said: “These traders were suffering anything from