A Wiltshire Council's investment of £10m in Qatar National Bank was criticised by Liberal Democrats at a recent cabinet meeting.

The council’s £10m investment made in July ignored the reported deaths of workers who built the World Cup stadiums said Liberal Democrat Councillor Dr Brian Matthew.

At the Cabinet meeting on November 29 he said: “This is surely a risk of reputation. This £10m invested in Qatar’s National Bank at this time when huge numbers of immigrant workers are thought to have died in the construction of the World Cup stadiums and when there’s repression of LGBTQ people in that country and indeed of some of the fans that have turned up wearing rainbow armbands.

“I think this is something that surely, we should be thinking about in terms of where we invest our money and investing it in socially responsible things.”

Cabinet member for Finance Nick Botterill replied: “If you started to go to town on every aspect you’d find there’s very few places in Africa and Asia or wherever to invest in. You’d probably be confining yourself to a very limited number of countries.”

“We don’t withdraw from the World Cup as a result, but we make our views known.”

Council Leader Richard Clewer added: “Investment decisions have got to be based primarily on risk. Moral issues are relevant to a point, but we need to be careful that we don’t cause ourselves financial jeopardy as a result of that.”

He added: “I must admit I get a little uncomfortable about some of the moral equivalence. You’re point about construction workers I entirely agree with but would I want to criticise other people’s religions?

“I’m not entirely sure I want to. I don’t think it’s the role of this council to. I think this is about where we’re investing our money and whether we are doing it in a way that makes sense in terms of risk rather than getting lost in detailed debates about the way other nations should behave.

“I suspect there are ways we behave that other nations might not like. It gets very tricky; we need to be careful.”

Councillor Clare Cape responded: “There are international laws that set things out quite clearly and I would urge us all to think in those terms.”

To watch the meeting click here.