The Conservative Party tops the latest quarterly donation league table

By Jonathan Isaby

The latest quarterly political donation figures were released by the Electoral Commission today, relating to the third quarter of this year.

Total donations (cash and non-cash) received by the main parties between July and September were:

• Conservatives -  £3,695,947
• Labour - £2,317,723*
• UKIP - £454,234
• Lib Dems - £350,645

* £1,903,949 of Labour's funding came from trade unions, of which the bulk came from four unions:

• Unite - £818,366
• Unison - £396,515
• Usdaw - £299,654
• CWU - £246,544

The biggest donors to the Conservative Party (£50,000 or over) during the quarter were:

• David Rowland - £1,065,966.52
• Jean Parmer - £200,000
• Vivian Imerman - £100,000
• Barbara Clark - £80,000
• Universal Music Operations Ltd (sponsorship) - £80,000
• Michael Farmer - £76,600
• Richard Hoare - £55,000
• George Robinson - £54,000
• Debbie Florentino - £53,300
• John Dodd - £50,000
• Jeremy Isaacs - £50,000
• JCB Research - £50,000
• Gloucester Research Limited - £50,000
• Richard Harpin - £50,000
• Simon Robertson - £50,000
• James Lyle - £50,000

Update: Reacting to the news that four our of every five pounds of Labour funding is coming from the unions, Conservative co-chairman Baroness Warsi said:

“These figures clearly show that the trade unions are back in charge of the Labour Party.  And now, Ed Miliband’s biggest backer in the leadership campaign, Unite, has elected Len McCluskey, who says there is ‘no such thing as an irresponsible strike’ and has promised to oppose any reform of Labour’s link to the trade unions.  Ed Miliband must end his embarrassed silence on the election of Len McCluskey. Ed Miliband needs to make clear who is running his party – him or the trade unions."