None of Swindon Borough Council’s cash remains invested in Qatar. 

It was reported recently that the council was one of more than two dozen local authorities in the UK to have put money into the World Cup host country’s Qatar National Bank.

And the cumulative total of £80 million banked there by Euclid Street put the borough as one of the larger investors. 

But now the council has moved its last £10m from the QNB and has nothing invested in the country at all. 

Chairman of the council’s audit committee, Councillor Steve Weisinger told members of the Conservative cabinet during a discussion of the authority’s capital assets: “All our money is out of Qatar and is safely invested elsewhere. 

“It was invested there for a short time as the interest rate was high and it  made a good return.” 

Councillor Dale Heenan asked whether moving the money had been as a result of the end of the investment term or whether it had been done in response to criticism and whether there had been any cost to moving it. 

The cabinet member for finance Keith Williams said it has been moved at the end of the term and there had been no penalty or cost, and the council had not lost any money.