“Why should my pension scheme fund the Tories?"

Good question. Ever since it came out in Labour & Capital” blog, that the fund managers Fidelity have recently given the Conservative Party £415,000; I have been contacted by furious UNISON members whose pension fund employ Fidelity.

Local Government Pension scheme members currently have little or no influence over who is employed to manage their pension contributions (their “deferred pay”). Now they find that their pension money is being used to enrich the Tories without them even being made aware.

Many UNISON members also work for Conservative controlled Councils and are obviously concerned that these Councils are paying huge amounts of money to a company which is a significant Conservative Party funder without any disclosure or consultation. LGPS Pension fund managers usually charge annual fees of hundred of thousands of pounds to manage Council funds.

I know that a number of Labour Party councillors are also livid that they have employed such a company without being aware of this potential conflict of interest.

The author of Labour & Capital, Tom P and his wife, has a ISA with Fidelity and has been trying for sometime to get proper response from Fidelity about why they pay the Tories, will they continue to do so and why don’t they disclose their political bias? He has been pretty much been fobbed off. See the latest rather pointless response.

Following the complaints I have received from UNISON members, I have (finally) drafted a letter to Fidelity which I will consult beforehand with the London and the National UNISON Capital Stewardship forums (I currently chair both).

I hope that the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) will also get their finger out and give some definitive advice on donations to political Parties. At the moment their advice is only that they would not normally support such donations. What on earth does that mean in practice? No doubt at this rate we will have to wait for some typically British financial scandal to occur before “the powers to be” get their act together and ban this frankly odious practice.