Sheffield Council has invested taxpayers’ money in World Cup host nation Qatar’s state bank, it has emerged.

After being listed in a published Freedom of Information request as having made investments in Qatar, the Council confirmed to Now Then that it put £7.5m into Qatar National Bank (QNB) for one year from 2016 to 2017.

The deposit, which made a return of 1.07%, will raise questions about the Council’s ethical considerations when choosing how to invest its money and potentially brings it into conflict with its own Equality Objectives. QNB is 50%-owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, the state’s $450bn sovereign wealth fund...

Asked if the investment ran contrary to the Council’s commitments to equality, Councillor Bryan Lodge, Chair of the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee at Sheffield City Council, told Now Then that “the ethical values associated with this investment should have been taken into account because they do not align with the values of our city...