UK councils invest £500mn in Yemen war to fund retirement payouts

UK councils have been funding their workers’ retirement payouts by investing over half a billion pounds in arms companies supporting Saudi Arabia’s deadly war against the people of Yemen.

Up to 43 council pension funds have invested nearly £566 million in weapons manufacturing companies BAE Systems, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, The Guardian reported Thursday, citing nearly 100 freedom of information requests.

As a result of the massive investment, the councils earned over £18.5 million in dividends last year, when the war caused thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen and gave way to a punishing famine across the impoverished country.

The involvement of UK councils in the war does not end there, however, as they also hold hundreds of millions of pounds of shares in the same five companies via joint investments that they do not control directly.

At least 40 more local authority pension funds had made similar investments in arms companies that ranged in size from negligible sums to tens of millions of pounds.

This means thousands of council workers in the UK will receive retirement payouts that are partially funded by money coming from extensive British arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

Since the onset of the war in March 2015, the kingdom has on many occasions used British and American weapons to kill Yemeni women and children.

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Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who is a member of the parliamentary committee on arms export controls, said council employees would be upset to find out where their retirement income was coming from.

“British council workers’ retirement income is being funded by companies that have been allowed by the British and American governments to make much of their profits by satisfying the appetite of Saudi to kill, maim and starve millions of civilians in Yemen,” he said.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) also condemned the trend, saying council workers’ retirement funds “should be invested in the public good, not in companies that profit from war and conflict”.

“These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet, the weapons these companies are producing have had a devastating impact,” said Andrew Smith, a CAAT spokesman.

The UK has licensed over £4.7 billion worth of arms exports to Riyadh, which include Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets, massive bombs and GBU-12 Paveway II precision-guided missiles. London has also been accused of providing the Saudi military with banned weapons such as cluster bombs.

Besides weapons, the British military has been providing Riyadh with combat intelligence and target data over the course of the war.

“The fighter jets and bombs that are being used in Yemen have played a crucial role in creating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” Smith said.

“Councils should not be profiteering from the companies that have made these weapons and have been so complicit in the destruction,” he added.

UK and US arms companies have defended their dealings with Saudi Arabia, pointing out that such contracts are direct results of government to government agreements.

Last year, Saudis bought a sixth of everything British military contractors sold. Some 6,000 people are working at BAE’s Saudi facilities.

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