According to the Electoral Commission, in the first week of the general election campaign, The Labour Party raised £351,990 more than the Conservative party in donations. Labour received £926,908 in donations followed by Conservatives on £574,918 and the Liberal Democrats with £454,999. The Scottish National Party managed to raise £36,305 in donations while Reform UK raised £140,000.
This is a significant turnaround from the 2019 election where the Conservative party attracted £5.7m in the first week of the campaign, which accounted for 87% of all donations, compared to Labour’s £218,500. However, the amounts donated in the first week of the general election campaign this year are under 50% of what was donated in the same period ahead of the 2019 election.
The largest donation of £500,000 was given to Labour by Toledo Productions, a company founded by Duncan Kenworthy, a producer on Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. Subsequently, the Lib Dems received a donation of £150,000 from Adam Management while the SNP received £127,998 from Robert Benzie. The biggest Tory donor was Bassim Haidar, who gave the party £88,000. Haidar is the founder of a company specializing in mobile financial and technical services and is of Lebanese nationality.
Official figures from the Electoral Commission claim that political parties received a total of £3.247m in donations in the first week of the general election campaign between 30 May and 5 June. The Reform UK party held the largest donation figure of £140,000. The Cooperative Party received £120,000 in donations, whilst The Climate Party and the Social Democratic Party both declared £25,000. Although the Green Party did not declare any donations due to not reaching the £11,000 minimum threshold for declarations, it is important to note that this is the first of six reports on donations to parties, which the Electoral Commission states are “an important part of delivering transparency for voters.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More