Una O’Halloran

MEMBERS of the Town Hall’s pension fund will get to decide whether to end investments in companies linked to conflict, genocide, and other human rights abuses, after a two-year campaign to sever links.

Some 300 members will come together to set out the questions that will be posed to every person who is part of the council’s pension fund later this year.

This new consultation will launch in May, where members will decide whether the council should divest its remaining 0.1 per cent of holdings from companies that have been identified by the United Nations as engaged in activities raising human rights concerns in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In 2024, the Town Hall already committed to divesting £2.6million of the pension fund from companies accused of illegal settlement activity in the West Bank, and they say they have taken action to “significantly lower” the fund’s exposure to companies engaged in, or complicit with, human rights abuses.

The fund has severed all links with arms manufacturers.

Esme Waterfield, from Islington Palestine Solidarity Campaign, previously told the Tribune that it was crucial local authorities divest from companies complicit in the conflict in order to put pressure on them to change their behaviour.

She said: “If people start divesting, it changes the whole economics of it, it puts pressure on companies, but it’s also a political statement.”

Meanwhile, Labour and independent councillors from Islington will be part of a group of more than 100 local politicians lobbying the capital’s pension fund to divest from Israel.

Councillor Santiago Bell-Bradford and Councillor Ilkay Cinko-Oner are among those expected to speak during a rally on Tuesday outside the main office of the London Collective Investment Vehicle.

The group want the CIV to create investment options excluding “all companies enabling Israel’s grave violations of international law” and set a timeline for divesting all offerings from such firms.

Leader of the council Una O’Halloran said: “Our pension fund has been leading the way when it comes to ethical investment in recent years, as we work to ensure our fund reflects our values and our community. We’ve been utterly horrified by what we’ve seen in Gaza and other places affected by the conflicts, and we know that many of our pension fund members care deeply about these issues.

“That’s why we’re launching engagement with members on divestment, before proceeding to a formal consultation. At the end of the consultation process, the Pension Fund Committee will listen carefully to responses before making a final decision on proceeding with divestment.”