Threat of new Indyref vote will damage business, says f irm linked to SNP leader ( )
... and whose trustees pay him £3,000 a month!
THE prospect of a second independence referendum is damaging the economy, according to a company with financial links to the SNP’s Ian Blackford.
Funeral plan provider Golden Charter has warned that the threat of another vote dents consumer confidence and piles extra costs onto businesses.
Mr Blackford – a banker before becoming an MP – chairs Golden Charter Trust (GCT), which manages £1.13 billion of customer subscriptions. Its board of trustees invests and administers the funds received from those who purchase the firm’s funeral plans.
Mr Blackford was accused of ‘rank hypocrisy’ last year after it emerged that some of its investments had benefited from the arms trade with Saudi Arabia, which he has opposed.
In the latest clash between Mr Blackford’s political and financial interests, Golden Charter – which has its HQ in Bearsden, near Glasgow – has made clear its opposition to any referendum.
The company’s latest annual report reveals that it weathered sluggish sales last year while uncertainty continued around Brexit, but business began to pick up once the issue was resolved.
Chief financial officer Robert Speir said that ‘confidence started to recover after the general election in December 2019, but this largely evaporated as the Covid-19 pandemic started to impact on the UK from mid-March 2020’.
He predicted that Golden Charter’s trade would be back to normal by the autumn, but listed a number of factors that could damage its business once again.
Mr Speir added: ‘The ongoing uncertainty in relation to Brexit and a potentially resultant Scottish independence vote undermines consumer confidence, increases the complexity of the business environment and the cost base within our business.’
Mr Blackford joined Golden Charter Trust (GCT) in 2008 and has been chairman since 2015.
His eight-strong board is responsible for investing the premiums of around 400,000 customers.
He receives a monthly salary of £3,247 for 32 hours of work a year with the guarantee of £1,576 for each additional day he gives to the business. Last April, his regular pay rose by 1.7 per cent while his daily rate went up by 5.1 per cent.
His GCT payments are on top of the £81,932 he receives as MP for Ross, Skye & Lochaber – a role for which he claimed £242,000 expenses last year, the second highest in the House of Commons. Some of the cash is spent employing his stepson John O’Leary as a caseworker.
Mr Blackford also had time to be a non-executive chairman of internet provider Commsworld, netting an estimated £1.8 million for his stake in the company when it was bought out last December.
As SNP leader at Westminster, he has been in the vanguard of the party’s protests against the sale of UK arms to Saudi Arabia, which, it claims, have then been used in breach of international law as part of the bloody civil war in Yemen.
But we revealed last year that GCT generates profits from funds that invest in defence deals with the Kingdom. Around 15 per cent of the £1.13 billion in its care was tied up with Artisan Partners’ Global Equity Fund, which boasted Airbus as one of its top ten holdings.
The French company is part of a consortium that sold 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and agreed a second tranche of 48 in 2018, as the regime ramped up its campaign against Iranianbacked Houthi rebels.
Millions more were invested with BNY Mellon’s Newton Real Return Fund, which includes stakes in BAE Systems – part of the Eurofighter project – and General Electric, the US giant whose engines are fitted to Saudi F-15 fighter jets.
Mr Blackford’s lengthy career in investment banking saw him rise to head of equity operations in Holland and Scotland during a 20-year spell with Deutsche Bank. He has resisted calls to give up his seat on the GCT board to concentrate on his political role.
A Golden Charter spokesman said: ‘We are completely independent of the Golden Charter Trust and this is not a matter for us on which to comment.’
Scottish Tory finance spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘In the middle of a pandemic, with so much financial uncertainty, it’s no wonder companies like Golden Charter are warning against the risks of an independence referendum.’
Neither the SNP nor Mr Blackford would offer any comment.
‘Potential indy vote undermines confidence’