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Over a third of Labour donations at the last general election were from donors who previously gave money to other parties, Byline Times can reveal.
A record £9.6 million was donated to Labour to fund its successful election landslide in July, but the sources of that war chest radically changed from past elections as the party tried to make up for faltering support from trade unions.
Only £2.4 million came from the party’s 11 affiliated trade unions. In every election since 2015, that figure has been £4 million or more (it peaked at £5 million in 2017 and 2019), even when the total raised was significantly less than the most recent election. In 2015, Labour raised just over £6m, in 2017, £4 million, and 2019, just over £5 million in total donations.
Almost all of Labour’s union haul this year came from two unions, Usdaw and Unison, which are seen to be more supportive of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership and policies. Usdaw donated £514,000 and Unison, £1.49 million.
Others like Unite the Union, once the party’s largest donor, which donated £3 millon during the 2019 election, refused to donate to the party or endorse its manifesto.
But as the Labour leadership’s relationship with trade unions grown icier, it has received a warm reception from wealthy individual donors.
Thanks to a charm offensive spearheaded by Labour Peer Waheed Ali – worth over £200 million – the party has begun winning over super-wealthy donors who once abandoned the party or even supported its rivals.
Byline Times analysed the major party donors during the 2024 election campaign and found that some £3.5 million of the money Labour received to fund its election campaign came from previous donors to other political parties – largely the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats.
In recent months concerns have grown around undue access super-wealthy donors may get to policymakers and party leaders.
So who bankrolled Labour’s landslide?
By far the party’s biggest donor at the last election was Lord David Sainsbury – who donated £2.5 million – over a quarter of its entire election total.
A serial political donor – Sainsbury has given well over £30 million in the last decade – but claimed in 2017, during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, that we would stop donating to political causes.
Just three years later, however, he changed his mind, donating £8 million to the Liberal Democrats, the biggest political donation in history. He has also donated smaller sums to the Conservatives in the past. After Starmer was elected leader, Sainsbury returned to backing the Labour Party.
Former gambling mogul Derek Webb also donated £250,000 to Labour, after spending several years supporting the Liberal Democrats.
The artist Antony Gormley donated £500,000 to the party during the election campaign, his first political donation after previously donating to the Green Party the year before.
One of Labour’s most prolific donors under Starmer has been Anna Lisbet Rausing, who donated nearly £40,000 during the election, putting her in the party’s top 25 biggest election donors.
Rausing’s family – billionaire industrialists known for inventing the Tetra Pak – have been serial donors to the Conservatives, and similarly, she has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to a pro-EU campaign arm of the Conservatives and the Women’s Equality Party.
The Electoral Commission, which records donation data for elections, only covers major donations of over £10,000.
Cash and Access
In recent months, there have also been growing concerns about the potential access donors have had to political figures in the party .
In April, openDemocracy revealed that Starmer, Rachel Reeves and other senior party figures met with Bloomberg Group, a major media and financial information conglomerate, weeks after it donated £150,000 to the party.
In the meeting they were given “an exclusive dive” into Labour’s policy plans for the financial services sector, sparking concerns of “cash for access”.
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Last week, the Chancellor was criticised for appointing a party donor – former banker Ian Corfield – to a senior role at the Treasury.
Corfield, who was a senior business adviser to the party in opposition, donated more than £20,000 to Labour politicians including Reeves in the run-up to the general election.
Days later, it was revealed consultant Emily Middleton, who was appointed as a director general in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology run by Secretary of State Peter Kyle, had similar links. Previously a partner at consultancy firm Public Digital, it paid for her secondment to Kyle’s office while in opposition – worth the equivalent of more than £65,000.
Conservative shadow minister John Glen has urged the civil service to investigate the alleged “cash for jobs” appointments. The Government has denied any wrongdoing.