Stockport council invested sums of up to £10m with the Qatar National Bank despite the country’s widely condemned human rights record. The authority deposited between £5m and £10m with the state lender during various periods between September 2019 and November this year, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
At no time was more than £10m invested with the bank and the council says it currently has no funds with QNB. The bank is half-owned by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) - the $450bn sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar formed in 2005 to protect and grow the country’s financial assets.
The Middle Eastern country has come under growing scrutiny since controversially being selected to host the 2022 World Cup 12 years ago. The decision has been heavily criticised due to the gulf state’s human rights record, including laws which ban homosexuality and relegate women to second class citizens. Its labour laws have also come under the microscope, with more than 6,000 migrant workers dying in Qatar since the country was chosen to hold the World Cup in 2010.
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Stockport council opting to invest with QNB may seem rather jarring for a local authority that supported this year’s LGBT+ Adoption and Fostering Week and this week was awarded became White Ribbon Accredited for making a commitment to ending men’s violence against women. The council at first refused to answer the FOI - lodged by The Guardian’s Rob Davies and shared with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) - on the grounds it ‘would prejudice the commercial interests of the bank’ - a decision Mr Davies claimed was ‘ludicrous’.
But after pushing for an internal review, the council gave a series of dates between which it had invested up to certain limits. What the actual figure was, however, was not stated. When asked to clarify this by the LDRS , the council confirmed it had deposited to those limits - ranging from £5m to £10m. However it will not release the interest rates on the basis this remains ‘commercially sensitive’.
The most recent period covers until November 11 2022 - nine days before the World Cup got under way. The council says it had no more than £10m deposited with QNB at any one time. The LDRS asked the council if it believed it had acted ‘ethically and transparently’ by investing with QNB, given its human rights record.
Michael Cullen, deputy chief executive of Stockport council, said: “Following an internal review the council provided the investment limit for the bank which was the amounts actually invested. We did not provide the level of interest received which was deemed to be commercially sensitive.
“The maximum amount deposited at any one time with the Qatar National Bank has not exceeded £10m. The council adheres to its agreed treasury management strategy at all times and the overriding objective in making any deposits is to ensure the security and liquidity of council funds. The council has no monies currently invested in the Qatar National Bank.”
Among the organisations to have criticised Qatar is Amnesty International, which campaigns for human rights across the globe. Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International UK’s head of policy and government affairs, said: “Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council needs to be clear about how it is investing money in Qatar, not least because of the well-documented widespread exploitation of migrant workers in the country.”
He added: “It’s worrying that a public body should cite commercial sensitivity as a reason for not divulging information that may shed light on the human rights or environmental impacts of its investments.”
Another critic is Stonewall, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity. While the organisation did not wish to comment on Stockport council specifically, Robbie de Santos, its director of communications and external affairs, said: “LGBTQ+ people in Qatar are criminalised for simply existing and are forced to hide who they are.
"In 2022, it is deeply concerning that countries with appalling human rights records are rewarded with the right to host one of the world's largest sporting tournaments. These appalling comments highlight why it is vital that the international community make clear that they expect Qatari authorities to respect and uphold freedom of expression, and the rights of all including LGBTQ+ people.”
Details of the investments made with QNB by Stockport council are as follows:
DATES : 18.09.2019 - 18.03.2020 DEPOSIT : £5M
DATES : 20.09.2020 - 20.03.2020 DEPOSIT : £5M
DATES : 01.04.2020 - 01.07.2020 DEPOSIT : £10M
DATES : 01.07.2020 - 01.10.2020 DEPOSIT : £10M
DATES : 01.10.2020 - 05.02.2021 DEPOSIT : £10M
DATES : 31.03.2021 - 22.04.2021 DEPOSIT : £7.45M
DATES : 30.04.2021 - 29.10.2021 DEPOSIT : £10M
DATES : 29.10.2021 - 16.02.2022 DEPOSIT : £10M
DATES : 11.05.2022 - 11.11.2022 DEPOSIT : £9M
Qatar National Bank has not replied to a request for comment.
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