Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP / UK Parliament
An amendment to the Public Service Pension Bill preventing public service pension funds from being misused to target Israel through divestments has passed the House of Commons this week with the support of the Government. The amendment, tabled by former Communities and Local Government Secretary, Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP, represents a major step forward in the Government’s stated intention to tackle the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The bill – once passed – will specifically lay out in law the Secretary of State’s power to offer the guidance to administrators of local government pension schemes that investment decisions should not conflict with UK foreign and defence policy.
The amendment comes in response to multiple attempts at local councils in the UK to divest holdings from Israeli companies and those operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This week, Conservative councillors were involved in successful efforts to reject attempts to divest at both Wirral and Hertfordshire Councils.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rt. Hon. Simon Clarke MP, stated during the debate that BDS “has nothing to do with pensions and everything to do with politics”. Mr Clarke continued by saying: “It has had the chilling effect of legitimising Antisemitism among the hard-left, leading to Kosher food being taken from supermarket shelves, Jewish foods being censored, and the disgusting spectacle of Jewish university student societies being threatened with bans”.
Mr Jenrick stated that “for too long we have seen public pension schemes pursue pseudo-foreign policies” that are “exclusively focused on rewriting the UK’s relationship with the world’s only Jewish state, Israel”.
CFI Parliamentary Chairman, Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP described BDS as “a pernicious movement that singles out Israel time and time again to undermined the UK-Israel bilateral relationship”.
In an article explaining his amendment published in The Times, Mr Jenrick said that “clearly not everyone who engages in BDS is antisemitic but you don’t have to look very hard to find those that are. Successive studies have demonstrated that engaging in BDS activities is the single best predictor for Antisemitic attitudes”.
The purpose of the amendment is to resolve an issue that arose out of the Public Service Pensions Act (2013) and the Local Government Pension Scheme (Management and Investment of Funds) Regulations 2016, after the Government lost a legal challenge at the Supreme Court by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in 2020.
The bill – which passed in the House of Commons with a large majority (299-81) after Labour abstained–is now in the final stages.
