Reform UK rebuke Doncaster Council’s pension investments

The deputy leader of Reform UK has accused a council’s pension provider of “woeful underperformance” and “investing in woke things”.

Richard Tice said Doncaster Council’s pension scheme was one area where “tens of millions of pounds” of savings had been identified by his party.

Reform UK has more councillors in Doncaster than any other party following May’s local elections, but does not run the authority, which is overseen by Labour’s Ros Jones under the directly-elected mayoral system.

South Yorkshire Pensions, which runs the council’s pension scheme, has been contacted for comment.

Earlier this week, Tice said his party, which is led by Nigel Farage, could help councils save billions of pounds across the country by changing the way the Local Government Pension Scheme funds were invested.

Speaking ahead of Reform UK party’s conference in Birmingham, Tice said Doncaster’s scheme was one of a number where he alleged “mismanagement” had been identified.

“There’s vast overpayment of fees to rich investment managers, woeful underperformance [and] investing in woke things, illiquid funds,” he said.

“It’s tens of millions of pounds, huge sums, in terms of saving on fees and under performance.”

As well as being the main opposition party in Doncaster, Reform UK also has control of 12 councils and two mayoral authorities in England, meaning it has power to enact policy changes in those authority areas.

Tice continued: “The rights of pensioners and retirees and employers are absolutely sacrosanct and we are not touching those but if you perform better you can reduce the quantity of employer contributions, which means you can save council money, which means you can invest it.”

He said the savings could be invested in “better social care provision”.

Tice also defended Nottinghamshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport and environment, Bert Bingham, after he was criticised for claiming man-made global warming is a “hoax”.

“The joy of a democracy and free speech is that people can have free speech,” Tice told the BBC when asked about the Worksop West representative.

“Wouldn’t it be boring if we we’re all the same?”

The politician also reiterated his previous criticism of “net stupid zero” policies, which his party has pledged to scrap.

“The idea that, arrogantly, we think we can stop the power of the sun, stop the power of volcanoes,” he said.

“They are literally saying ‘if we get to net zero, you can stop climate change’ – that’s garbage.

“We have got to stop this misinformation from the media. Many scientists also say you can’t stop the power of the sun.”

He added: “You have got jobs going all over the place because of the cost of energy, because of the cost of electricity, because of the cost of net stupid zero.”

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of leading scientists whose reports are signed off by governments around the world, has said limiting human-caused global warming “requires net zero CO2 emissions”.