A member of a committee overseeing millions of pounds of Highland Council pension investments has broken ranks to condemn its massive stake in the tobacco industry.
Inverness Liberal Democrat member Ken MacLeod is the first on the local authority’s pensions committee to back GPs and others who have demanded an end to such investments on ethical grounds.
But he appears to be a lone voice among his colleagues.
Councillor MacLeod said he has raised the matter with an investment adviser at a recent meeting but had received no support.
“I’ve been fighting a lone fight on this issue. To my mind, it’s a high risk strategy,” he said.
“The returns could so easily be obtained somewhere else – and to withdraw these investments would be another nail in the coffin of the tobacco industry.
“We should have got out of tobacco a long time ago.
“The tobacco industry makes it money selling in under-developed countries and they flog it to youngsters, getting them hooked on smoking, making a lot of money out of poor people.
“There are alternative investment opportunities that could be taken up. I would support any move to disinvest from tobacco.”
Committee colleague Helen Carmichael, a senior member of the council’s minority independent-led administration, has reminded Mr MacLeod – a veteran Inverness solicitor – that the council sought guidance on the issue some years ago.
The council leader at the time, Michael Foxley, tried on several occasions to have the council disinvest in tobacco.
Repeating a long-held defence of such investments, Mrs Carmichael said: “The legal advice that we had, which I have followed, is that the obligation is to the pensioners.
“When Ken comes to the table with evidence that an alternative portfolio would be as rewarding then we can consider it.”
However, she suggested there were many other areas of investment that would be equally controversial.
The latest data showed that in the run-up to Christmas the council had a £26million stake in tobacco firms, increasing the investment by £3million in the past year.
It has also retained a huge shareholding in the alcohol sector, despite a council policy of promoting good health.
On top of the tobacco investments, the council has more than £3million in breweries and £3.5million in pubs.
NHS Highland chairman and Lib Dem councillor David Alston last month said it was “wrong” to invest in tobacco. Party colleague and GP Jean Davis agreed.
