The Electoral Commission reports today on party donations in the fourth quarter of 2007, a period which partly precedes Brown bottling out of the election.
The Conservatives led the way getting almost £10m, followed by Labour with £5.5m and the LibDems with just £950k. Worryingly, more than £450,000 had been declared after the legal deadline.
Lord Laidlaw tops the list of Conservative donors, having given a whopping £3m to the Party in that period. Laidlaw had been under pressure earlier in the year for not being a UK resident.
The Conservatives also paid off £3.5m of loans, whilst Labour paid off £1.4m but borrowed another £2m. The LibDems owe over £1m.
That £3m donation from Laidlaw is a conversion from a loan, which explains most of the "repayment" of the loans.
Posted by: Empedocles | February 20, 2008 at 15:20
Labour's financial position is looking incresingly unsustainable then.
Posted by: Andrew Woodman | February 20, 2008 at 15:22
After all the problems Labour have had with dodgy donations we need to be whiter than white. Please CCHQ don't make any more mistakes. If in doubt declare it and if it can't be declared on time reurn the monry.
This story will I hope provide us with another reason to refuse to support any increases at all in State Funding. It's immoral, bad for politics and not to our advantage.
Posted by: Malcolm Dunn | February 20, 2008 at 15:30
Another way of looking at this is that of every £5 donated to a political party in the UK nearly £3 of it was to the Conservative party. The chart shows that Conservative fund raising was more than every other political party combined. That is one hell of an impressive effort.
Posted by: James Burdett | February 20, 2008 at 15:42
This is exciting news. We saw the opinion polls improve after Bottler Saturday. We are now seeing a funding boom too. Exciting!
Posted by: bluepatriot | February 20, 2008 at 15:44
Malcolm Dunn: I wish it was as easy as that. Unfortunately the laws surrounding donations are not black and white. You also have a load of bollox about what is meant by 'the spirit of the law'.
As a tory agent we try our best but the rules are rediculous and it is very easy to fall into traps.
For example, it would be illegal to not declare a donation of, say, £210 in a month. However, I could easily collect up to £2400 from any number of people in a year and it would be legal not to declare it.
The rules are so full of holes and this is why the electoral commission often cannot do anything about people breaking the rules.
Posted by: agent | February 20, 2008 at 15:53
Is that right? Gordon Brown MP is the Labour Party's ninth biggest donor?
I hope that it's his money and that no-one asked him to act as a conduit for David Abrahams...
Posted by: Craig Barrett | February 20, 2008 at 16:13
Maybe the late declaration was just plain incompetence, or maybe in light of recent bad headlines caused by funding controversies CCHQ was being particularly diligent about checking the source of them?
I bet the Guardian are kicking themselves about bringing forward this poll to half term week just before the NR nationalisation.
Posted by: Scotty | February 20, 2008 at 16:47
Gordon's donation will be his 15% tax from his leadership campaign donations to the Labour party.
Somewhat late, but I was beginning to wonder if he would ever pay it.
Posted by: Timothy | February 20, 2008 at 17:21
Shows just how dependent Labour are on the Unions, they seem to account for almost all of of their Quarter 4 donations.
Posted by: Michael Rutherford | February 20, 2008 at 17:28
Actually, scrap that. £89K does seem a bit much for 15% of his leadership campaign expenses.
Posted by: Timothy | February 20, 2008 at 17:29
Michael, CCHQ issued this press release earlier on the union-Labour link:
"Figures released by the Electoral Commission today show that donations from trades unions to the Labour Party have nearly tripled from the previous quarter, rocketing from £1.6 million in Q3 2007 to over £4.5 million in Q4 2007. Meanwhile the Labour Party’s loans stand at nearly £20m.
The figures from the Electoral Commission also show that:
The proportion of donations to the Labour Party from the trade unions has more than doubled, from 33 per cent in Q3 2007 to 77 per cent in Q4 2007.
The unions donated almost £3.5 million more to the Labour Party in Q4 2007 than they did in Q4 2006, during Tony Blair’s last months as Prime Minister.
The unions donated more to the Labour Party in Q4 2007 than in any other fourth quarter since Electoral Commission records began in 2001.
The new figures on donations come just days after new figures published by the Office for National Statistics showed that the number of days lost to strikes soared between October and December 2007 to 412,000 days - almost nine times the level of the previous year.
Commenting, Conservative Party Chairman, Caroline Spelman said:
“With two police investigations underway into donations to Labour under Gordon Brown, he is increasingly reliant on union donations to shore up the Labour Party. And Labour continue to give the unions favours in return. This underlines why Labour should accept our proposals for a universal cap on donations to political parties – including donations from the unions.”
Posted by: Editor | February 20, 2008 at 17:37
I would not be surprised if Northern Rock becomes a large donor and/or lender to the Labour Party. Gordon has his man on the board already. No other bank would lend to a party with declining membership, huge debts and little assets.
Posted by: TFA Tory | February 20, 2008 at 17:46
Anyone know who Betterworld are with £25k to the Lib Dems?
Posted by: HF | February 20, 2008 at 17:59
Very pleased the pie-chart refers to us as the;
"Conservative and Unionist Party"
Lest us not forget, it is up to prevent this great nation disintegrating into a medley of piddlingly insignificant minor European states and kissing goodbye to our legacy.
No more deals with the nationalists please.
Posted by: Graham Checker | February 20, 2008 at 19:54
"No more deals with the nationalists please."
I don't see what the fuss is about. Why stand against something which is more than likely in Scotland's best interest?
Posted by: Andrew S | February 20, 2008 at 20:09
"Figures released by the Electoral Commission today show that donations from trades unions to the Labour Party have nearly tripled from the previous quarter"
Editor, do you happen to know what the current law is about the political levy?
Can conservative trade unionists (easily) opt out of paying it? Or, better, could they specify that they wanted their levies to go to the conservative party?
Posted by: David Belchamber | February 21, 2008 at 12:31