Yahoo Finance Election 2024: Labour outweighing Tories on campaign donations, data finds
Labour are significantly outweighing the Tories on campaign donations, data from the Electoral Commission has revealed.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party has secured some £5.3m in the first two weeks of the election campaign, compared to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives on under £900,000.
The figures showed the Tories raised under £300,000 – just £292,500 – in the second week of the campaign, versus Labour’s £4.4m, via a £2.5m donation from Lord David Sainsbury.
Released on Friday, the accounts published by the UK’s elections watchdog showed the Conservatives have raised just £889,000 since the election was called, in comparison to the £8.7m they raised in the first fortnight of the 2019 campaign under Boris Johnson.
Top donations of two lots of £50,000 came in from Bestway Wholesale, ultimately owned by Tory peer Lord Zameer Choudrey via the Guernsey-based Bestway Group, and an incorporated organisation called “The Spring Lunch”, which lists an address in Norfolk.
Major Labour donors included Autoglass chief Gary Lubner, who gave £900,000, and hedge fund manager Martin Taylor, who gave £700,000.
While Trade union Aslef provided £100,000 to the party, alongside former Cable and Wireless executive Nick Razey.
Reform UK raised £742,000 in the second week of the campaign, largely through £500,000 donated by Britain Means Business Ltd, a company controlled by party boss Richard Tice.
They also received £50,000 from former pop star and Neighbours actor Holly Valance, and their total major donations during the first fortnight came to £882,000.
The Liberal Democrats received £335,000 in the second week of the campaign, taking their total for the election to £789,999 in donations.
This included another £150,000 from businessman Safwan Adam and a £100,000 bequest from John Faulkner, a long-standing party member who left the party £1m in his will in 2023.
Political parties are required to provide weekly reports of donations of more than £11,180, after the government increased the threshold from £7,500 in January, but they have 30 days after receiving a donation to check that it is from a permissible source and decide whether to accept it.
