SURREY County Council has used taxpayers’ money to buy shares in tobacco, alcohol and aerospace and defence companies worth almost £50 million.

In August the council signed a deal worth nearly £900,000 a year for a public health firm to provide a stop-smoking service in the county. At the time officers did not confirm the value of the council’s shares in tobacco firms.

But the Mirror can now reveal the details of the massive cash pot, which also includes nearly £15 million of investments in tobacco firms, now worth more than £20 million, as of August 31.

Reported by the Sunday Mirror. You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.