Labour continues to out-fundraise Tories as party rakes in another £3.3m in week

Labour has continued to rake in campaign donations while the Conservatives are still struggling to raise funds, figures from the Electoral Commission show.

Figures published on Friday showed Labour raised £3.3 million in the third week of the campaign, far outstripping the £375,000 raised by the Conservatives in the same period.

The opposition’s coffers were boosted by a £1.49 million donation from the trade union Unison, along with £500,000 from venture capitalist Stuart Roden, £300,000 form the trade union Usdaw, and £250,000 from Danny Luhde-Thompson.

Sculptor Sir Antony Gormley donated art worth £500,000 to help the party’s fundraising efforts, having backed Labour’s plan to widen access to arts education for children.

In total, Labour raised £8.6 million in private donations during the first three weeks of the campaign.

In contrast, the Conservatives have managed to raise only £1.2 million in the same period, barely a tenth of the £12.2 million the party had raised by the third week of the 2019 campaign.

The largest donation to the Conservatives in the third week of the 2024 election was £100,000 from Jersey House (Developments) Ltd, a company owned by telecommunications entrepreneur Charles Wigoder.

It also received £100,000 from the National Conservative Draws Society, a private lottery for Conservative Party members.

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who is standing for re-election in Newark, donated £18,000 to the Tories, Electoral Commission records showed.

After raising £742,000 in the second week of the campaign, Reform UK’s fundraising efforts fell back, with the party raising just £99,000 in the third week of the election.

The largest of those donations was £25,000 from Tangerine Holdings Ltd, the company owned by David Haythornthwaite, a Lancashire businessman and chairman of AFC Fylde.

Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins, a former Conservative Party donor who was forced to apologise last year after tweeting that “someone should kill” London Mayor Sadiq Khan, gave Reform UK £20,000.

In February this year, Mr Mullins used an appearance on GB News to criticise Nigel Farage, now the leader of Reform UK, saying Brexit had “not worked and it’s not going to work” and predicting Britain would rejoin the EU.

In total, Reform UK has raised £981,000 over the course of the election.

The Liberal Democrats raised £193,945, bringing their total for the campaign to £983,944.

The Green Party received £20,000 in the third week of the campaign, while George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain raised £12,000.

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.

Parties still have 30 days after receiving a donation to check that it is from a permissible source and decide whether to accept it.