Swindon Borough Council have invested around £80 million in Qatar's National Bank, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

The authority is one of 28 UK councils which in total have more than £1 billion deposited in the Qatar National Bank.

Qatar's government has been severely criticised ahead of the tournament over its human rights record with regard to women and LGBTQ+ people.

This revelation in an investigation by The Guardian comes on the eve of the tournament.

The newspaper’s report says Swindon Borough Council have invested a total of just under £80m with the Qatar National Bank. The bank pays higher interest rates than most UK institutions, up to four per cent in some cases according to the Guardian.

But Swindon Borough Council have confirmed they have around £10 million currently invested in Qatar National Bank.

The investment has raised concerns owing to the country’s record on human rights: same sex sexual activity is illegal, and often a woman must obtain permission from a male member of her family to make key decisions about her life, such as travel, according to a 2021 report by Human Rights Watch. Qatar’s hereditary emir is the ruler of the country, political parties are not permitted, and the only elections are for an advisory municipal council.

Coun Robbins told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We want to understand how much money the council has in Qatar. There’s concern that it’s in the state bank of a regime with a poor human rights record and that is not at all friendly to the LGBT community.”

He added: “We’d like to know where else the council has invested Swindon taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and we don’t know how many of those taxpayers would feel about it being invested in Qatar.”

But the council said while no issues were raised when the investment was made, in light of more information a different decision may have been made.

Keith Williams, the council’s cabinet member for finance and commercialisation, said: “When making investments we follow guidance from both the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

“When these investments were originally made it was in the best financial interests of Swindon residents and no objections were raised to the strategy being taken. In light of recent disclosures, we would quite possibly have arrived at a different decision.

“Our investments are based on our Treasury Management Strategy, approved by full council, which focuses on security, liquidity and return on investment. The majority of our treasury activity is with UK-based institutions.”