{"id":851893,"date":"2026-03-26T16:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/851893\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:03:17","slug":"london-councillors-join-campaign-to-divest-pension-pots-from-firms-enabling-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/851893\/","title":{"rendered":"London councillors join campaign to divest pension pots from firms ‘enabling war crimes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 150 councillors in the capital have demand a pooled investment fund for borough councils exclude firms linked to Israeli government\u2019s attacks on Palestinians, reports Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ProPro-Palestine demonstrators hold a protest outside London CIV in Southwark (credit Facundo Arrizabalaga\/MyLondon)<\/p>\n

London\u2019s pooled pension fund must immediately divest from any firm \u201cenabling Israel\u2019s grave violations of international law,\u201d a cross-party group of politicians has said.<\/p>\n

More than 150 councillors across London\u2019s boroughs joined four London Assembly members in demanding the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV) \u2013 the pooled investment fund for the capital\u2019s councils \u2013 exclude future investment options that contribute to the Israeli government\u2019s abuse of Palestinians and set a timeline for full divestment.<\/p>\n

No Barnet councillors were among the signatories.<\/p>\n

Shake the CIV, the campaign group which handed over a letter with the demands to LCIV\u2019s office last week alongside Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), claims the pension fund currently invests \u00a37billion of its \u00a334bn portfolio in companies \u201ccomplicit in Israel\u2019s crimes\u201d including nearly \u00a31bn in arms manufacturers \u2013 figures which LCIV itself strongly disputes.<\/p>\n

Critics are concerned that more money could flow into such firms after all 32 boroughs and the City of London transfer their remaining pension assets to LCIV by the end of this month, with the new \u2018mega-fund\u2019 potentially worth over \u00a355bn.<\/p>\n

There is particular concern around \u201cPillar 3\u201d of LCIV\u2019s new responsible investment policy, which the letter explains \u201cexcludes only a subset of companies that engage in Israel\u2019s crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n

It adds: \u201cCompanies supplying Israel with weapons and military technology used in its genocide in Gaza fall outside of its scope. For example, Lockheed Martin, the primary producer of Israel\u2019s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, is not included.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven this, the exclusion criteria developed for LCIV\u2019s Responsible Investment Matrix must include companies identified by research conducted by credible human rights organisations as contributing to Israel\u2019s grave violations of international law, including the AFSC Investigate divestment list, and the WhoProfits Corporate database.<\/p>\n

\u201cLCIV has itself used these sources since 2021 to assess exposure to companies involved in violations of international law in Palestine, calling them \u2018the most politically balanced and thorough sources of information that we can access\u2019 as recently as June 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring that London CIV\u2019s investments are not contributing to Israel\u2019s genocide, military occupation and apartheid must be an urgent priority, in line with pension funds\u2019 responsibilities not to contribute to grave violations of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The signatories include dozens of Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green Party and independent politicians, including high-profile figures such as Green Party leader Zack Polanski.<\/p>\n

His party colleague on the London Assembly, Zoe Garbett, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): \u201cThis is simply doing what we can to make sure we are not complicit and that pension funds are instead used for the public good.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want their money invested in firms like Elbit and Palantir \u2013 pension funds could be used to invest in housing, to help people locally instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe London CIV should listen to the people it ultimately serves and move toward divestment from companies complicit in Israel\u2019s crimes and human rights abuses globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milly Oldfield, spokesperson for Shake the CIV, added: \u201cThey follow the money, but it\u2019s a myth that ethical investment isn\u2019t profitable or that it\u2019s difficult. Research shows that people would be happy to divert their pensions away from war crimes and away from crimes against humanity, if that\u2019s saving lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that especially London council workers, 700,000 of them, don\u2019t want their pension money covered in blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in a statement last year, LCIV claimed that campaign groups had \u201cwrongly\u201d calculated the \u00a37bn figure for investments \u201cin companies alleged to be complicit\u201d in Gaza war crimes. It said: \u201cThis is incorrect and appears to have arisen from a misunderstanding of data published on the LCIV website last year, following an FOI request.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to clarify [\u2026] this data actually showed that London CIV\u2019s exposure stood at \u00a3713m, which equated to 4% of the pool\u2019s total assets under management.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe document also included Partner Fund exposures in their own passive strategies (often described as \u2018deemed pooled\u2019), which totalled \u00a36.5bn. These passive strategies are managed by third-party fund managers, not under London CIV management and entirely outside the pool\u2019s control in terms of any investment decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since July 2024, eight London councils, including Waltham Forest, Islington and Wandsworth have passed a motion or issued a statement in support of divesting their pension funds from companies involved with Israel.<\/p>\n

However, the pension reforms will make it much harder for individual councils to divest from any specific companies. While they can currently instruct their fund manager to sell off shares in any chosen firm, LCIV has stated that they will need a \u201ccritical mass\u201d among member funds to trigger an exclusion.<\/p>\n

Aydin Dikerdem, Wandsworth Council\u2019s cabinet member for housing, explained: \u201cPreviously, councils were in control of their own funds \u2013 they were the investors. But as of 1st April, all of the different pension funds from across London are being pooled into one mega-fund, and LCIV will have control of the day-to-day purchasing of the stocks and shares within those pooled funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want is clear direction to managers, and it\u2019s called Pillar 3, which is around ethics. What we\u2019re asking for is that that pillar really offers a genuine choice for those who are concerned about the apartheid that\u2019s taking place, the crimes against humanity, and the genocide in Gaza, to make sure that that fund really does meet the criteria that councils are asking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

LCIV was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Independent news outlets like ours \u2013 reporting for the community without rich backers \u2013 are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Choose the news. Don\u2019t lose the news.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monthly direct debit\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Annual direct debit<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a35 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month\u2019s paper before anyone else, \u00a310 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month\u2019s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month.\u00a0\u00a350 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else. \u00a384 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month’s before anyone else.<\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>More information on supporting us monthly\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

More Information about donations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 150 councillors in the capital have demand a pooled investment fund for borough councils exclude firms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,16355,393,4884,837,257,54553,1814,617,16,15],"class_list":["post-851893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-divestment","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-israel","tag-london","tag-london-civ","tag-palestine","tag-pensions","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116296326378576464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}