A SCOTTISH council has increased its investment in a key arms supplier to Israel by over 1200% since the start of the war in Gaza, The National can reveal.
Data shows the Falkirk Pension Fund – which is used to pay pensions and lump sum benefits to Falkirk Council employees – owned 4770 shares in Lockheed Martin worth £1.6 million on September 30, 2023.
But that amount has since ballooned twelvefold to 59,162 shares with a total value of £21.3m as of March 31, 2024.
Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay (below), who represents the region which includes Falkirk, called it a “disgraceful use of public money” and urged the council to divest.
“Our local authorities should be investing in the public good, not in war profiteers and companies that are making a killing in Gaza,” she added.
The world’s largest arms firm, Lockheed Martin produces and supplies the IDF's F-16 and F-35 bombers, the C-130 Hercules transport planes, along with the Hellfire missiles.
Israeli attacks and bombing have led to over 39,000 Palestinian deaths so far since the deadly Hamas attack on October 7 last year.
Falkirk Council’s pension fund also has 734,995 shares in BAE Systems, a British arms firm which helps supply Israel with F-35 fighter jets.
Online postings by the Israeli army show F-35s in the bombing of targets in Gaza City and elsewhere along the Gaza strip.
Since the start of the war, the value of those BAE Systems shares has increased by £2.6m.
A Falkirk Council spokesperson told The National that the fund is managed by “independent investment managers” selecting investments “based on thorough financial analysis to achieve the fund’s long-term goals”.
“The Pensions Committee does have some influence on the types of investments, though satisfying all viewpoints is challenging,” the spokesperson added.
A Falkirk Council spokesperson told The National that the fund is managed by “independent investment managers” selecting investments “based on thorough financial analysis to achieve the fund’s long-term goals”.
“The Pensions Committee does have some influence on the types of investments, though satisfying all viewpoints is challenging,” the spokesperson added.
The National has been told that some have urged Falkirk Council to divest from its arms company investments, coming amid the wider divestment movement and calls for the UK Government to halt sales to Israel.
This included every council member receiving a copy of a petition and multiple letters of protest before the last Falkirk Council pension committee meeting on June 27.
Despite this, the item was not discussed at all – a fact confirmed by the council spokesperson.
“Recently, we received a petition and several letters expressing concerns about these investments. Due to procedural constraints and timing, these concerns could not be formally discussed at our last meeting,” they said.
“However, the petition was acknowledged, and it was agreed that a detailed report on this matter will be discussed at our September meeting.”
It’s not just a Falkirk Council issue
The SNP-led Falkirk Council’s pension fund isn’t the only one in Scotland that has investment in arms firms.
The multi-authority Strathclyde Pension Fund, one of the largest in Europe with over 277,000 members, has investments with a market value of £22.7m in BAE Systems, £6.3m in explosive manufacturer Chemring, and £35.6m in French arms firm Safran.
Between 2008 and 2021, Chemring was granted 19 licences by the UK Government to export military goods to Israel.
Safran has contracts with the Israeli military to provide telemetry equipment and battlefield targeting technology.
Fife Pension Fund, meanwhile, has investments worth around £9.8m in Lockheed Martin.
The largest investor in Lockheed Martin by a long stretch, however, is Lothian Pension Fund with shares with a market value of nearly £102.5m.
Simon Barrow, national secretary of the SNP Trade Union Group, the party's largest affiliate body, told The National that these investments are of “real concern to many workers whose money this ultimately is” as well as the large number of trade unions campaigning for a halt to UK arms sales to Israel.
"Workers themselves need to be involved directly in decisions about how to direct investments and challenge profiteering from the killing of many thousands of workers and their families in occupied Palestine over the past eight months," he added.
Mackay, meanwhile, said: "All levels of government have a responsibility to support a peaceful and sustainable future, but giving millions of pounds to arms dealers does the exact opposite.”
She added: "I urge Falkirk council, and every other local authority, to ask themselves if these are really the kinds of companies that they are happy to support.
"I hope that they will reconsider and that they will adopt the kind of ethical investment policies that reflect the kind of future we want for our communities and the world around us.”
