Ed Miliband's leadership campaign may not have the money that his older brother David's does, but he is sure that the support of 4,500 volunteers has made up for it. Figures released by the Electoral Commission today show that Ed's fundraising last month overtook David's by nearly £21,500.
Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign may not have the money that his older brother David’s does, but he is sure that the support of 4,500 volunteers has made up for it. Figures released by the Electoral Commission today show that Ed’s fundraising last month overtook David’s by nearly £21,500.
Today’s ‘slur’ in the Sun, which describes various unions of trying to “buy” Miliband junior suggests that they are trying to pay for influence.
“Unite spent £200,000 on pro-Ed letters to 1.1million members. It also spent £20,000 on texts. Ed’s campaign got £28,000 from the GMB in July, and a £105,000 donation from Unite will be confirmed today.
“In return, they want Ed to boost their power if he ever gets to No10.”
In an email sent to members last night, Ed said:
“We still need your help in these final days if we are to make our strong campaign count, win this election and show that we can turn those values into action for the people we serve.”
So far, the campaign has raised a total of £328,000 with £133,000 donated by trade unions and £95,000 coming from small donations.
Other payments disclosed to the Electoral Commission show that David’s campaign, which is said to have raised over £450,000 since May, has taken a variety of donations, including from unions. Ed Balls has had £100,000 donated to him by author, Ken Follett, and an additional £23,000 from donors such as the Communication Workers Union. Andy Burnham has taken £37,4000 from businesses and individuals, including footballer Jamie Carragher.
Diane Abbott is yet to disclose any donations.
All information regarding disclosed donations to all five candidates is available from the Electoral Commission.
25 Responses to “Sun’s false claim Ed M’s in the pocket of the unions”
Joanne
Hi Claire- excellent article.However- have just seen a blog on the Independent from JR which is disparaging about this piece.
I can only assume it’s got something to do with criticizing the “media” persae.I feel disppointed by that reaction as rate the Indie very highly.
I personally think you are spot on with this article, and LFF is a superb site.
their_vodka
Sun's false claim Ed M's in the pocket of the unions by @clairee_french http://bit.ly/bpDrer It's a bit rich considering who backs #condems!
Alys
Like many of the commenters here, I too don’t think Ed is in the pocket of the unions. But if you’re going to run a piece entitled ‘Sun’s *false* claim…” you surely have some duty to show that the claim in actually false, rather than going head first into an untreated mention of how many volunteers Ed Miliband has.
While I’m commenting on this, can I add that I agree with Ben Lyons, you imply that Ed has more volunteers than David, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
Liz McShane
Aren’t DM’s volunteers paid whereas Ed’s are ‘real’ volunteers…?
Tim H
“Other payments disclosed to the Electoral Commission show that David’s campaign, which is said to have raised over £450,000 since May, has taken a variety of donations, including from unions.”
A tad disingenuous as accounts go, this. An excellent bit of coverage in the Morning Star recently shed some light on who Miliband’s wealthy backers actually are – not a pretty picture:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/94241
and if his recent statements are anything to go by, he’s going to be welcoming them with open arms:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/13/labour-leadership-donations-miliband-burnham-balls