It is better to get a lower return on investment by not banking with Qatar such is the damage to Swindon’s reputation says leader of the Labour group Jim Robbins.

Coun Robbins is the proposer of a motion to be put to borough councillors on Thursday which says there have been media reports about the council’s investment in the National bank of Qatar and that the World Cup taking place has highlighted reports of human rights abuses in the country.

It concludes by requesting the cabinet member for finance Keith Williams to “prepare a report for cabinet setting out the scale of Swindon investments in the Qatar National Bank, if there are any other investments that have the potential for reputational damage and if there is a need for an ethical and environmental policy for investments for Swindon Borough Council".

Currently the council has around £10m in the Qatar National Bank, but has previously invested a cumulative total of £80m there.

When the investments came to light Coun Williams told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “When these investments were originally made it was in the best financial interests of Swindon residents and no objections were raised to the strategy being taken.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."

Coun Robbins would like the council to take that different decision as soon as possible.

He said: “I understand the council is short of money, and I understand the desire to make the maximum possible return on any investments.

“But if we have values then we have to live them. I don’t think we can have the rainbow flag on the pole at the Civic Offices but then be investing in a regime where being gay is illegal and can lead to imprisonment.

“There have been 400 top 600 alleged deaths of workers building the stadiums used in the world cup. My colleagues and I are the Labour Party, we shouldn’t be investing in a country that allows those deaths to happen.

“And we make a lot of fuss about our green credentials and making the borough council carbon neutral by 2030 - but that doesn’t sit with investing in a country which is rich off the back of oil.”

He added: “If you’re going to have values, and I think we should have, you should live them, and I think we should be doing that.”