UK ministers allow Gulf tyrannies to invest £140bn in Britain
Gulf investments in the UK, which have been actively encouraged by UK ministers, are increasing British economic reliance on regimes whose approach to democracy and human rights is antithetical to much-vaunted “British values”.
Yet Whitehall has in recent years deepened its support for these regimes and helps to keep them in power by training their internal security forces and selling them large quantities of arms. It is likely the UK allows such a permissive investment climate for Gulf autocrats partly in return for their making huge weapons purchases. The British royal family also plays a key role in bolstering these dictatorships and cultivating political and trade relations.
Saudi Arabia, whose internal security force is trained and armed by Britain, has made investments in the UK of around £60-billion. Most of these are through its oil-rich Public Investment Fund, which is chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler who is accused by the US of ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The UK operates a joint air force squadron with Qatar and the two countries were close allies during the Libya war of 2011, when the authorities in Doha bankrolled Libyan rebel Islamist groups which helped overthrew the Gaddafi regime. Qatar has been allowed to invest more than £40-billion in the UK and its assets include Harrods, the Shard building in central London, Canary Wharf and a stake in the London Stock Exchange.
The small Gulf state of Kuwait, which hosts around 40 British troops and where UK Reaper drones are believed to be based, has been allowed to invest over £17-billion in the UK and has stakes in companies including BP, Vodafone and HSBC. The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), which manages state revenues from the world’s fourth-biggest oil exporter, has an estimated $342-billion in assets, and is one of the world’s largest funds.
Wealthy investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are believed to have acquired assets worth over £13-billion in the UK while investments made by Emirati banks in Britain amount to around £12-billion. The investors are mainly royals in the ruling families of the Emirates. Sheikh Khalifa, the billionaire president of the UAE and emir of Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s leading emirate, has a portfolio worth more than £5.5-billion in the UK, mainly consisting of property in London. From 2008-15, Abu Dhabi invested a further £5.7-billion in British companies and assets, including a £1.5-billion stake in Thames Water and a £1-billion investment in a Manchester residential development company.
Bahrain’s repressive king, Hamad, is another close UK ally and a personal friend of the Queen, and the British government promotes an array of military and police programmes supporting Bahrain’s regime and its internal “security”. While there are few figures available covering the true extent of Bahrain’s investment in the UK, the regime’s sovereign wealth fund owns a majority stake in British car manufacturer McLaren. Based on the company’s value of £2.4-billion, the investment may be worth £1.5-billion.
source: declassified uk
