The Labour Party’s biggest donor and the biggest donor of the campaign during this year’s general election was Lord Sainsbury, the former chairman of the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain.
The Labour Party declared more donations than all other parties combined during the general election campaign, taking more than £9.5m in total.
Meanwhile the Tories, who were widely expected to suffer a heavy defeat and saw a number of their former donors defect to the Labour Party, including Tycoon Gareth Quarry who said the Conservative Party were ‘riven with arrogance and complacency’, raised just under £1.9m, less than a tenth of what they raised during the 2019 election.
The figures show the scale of dissatisfaction among Tory donors, with hundreds of donors turning their backs on the Tory party. A day before the election, Sky News reported that of the 248 individuals and organisations which donated to the Tory party in the 2019 General Election, only six have donated so far in this election.
There were 156 Tory donors during the first three weeks of the 2019 election period. Over the same period this year, there were just 30.
The Labour Party’s biggest donor and the biggest donor of the campaign during this year’s general election was Lord Sainsbury, the former chairman of the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain.
The BBC reports: “In total, more than £8m of Labour’s donations came from 10 sources. They included: two unions, the former Autoglass boss Gary Lubner, hedge fund managers Martin Taylor and Stuart Roden, the sculptor Antony Gormley, the production company Toledo Productions, tech investor Danny Luhde-Thompson and former professional poker player Derek Webb, who founded the Campaign for Fairer Gambling.”
The biggest Lib Dem donor of the campaign was Adam Management Holdings, a management consultancy and real estate company run by Safwan Adam, whose company provided almost £480,000 to the Liberal Democrats and also donated £20,000 to the Green Party.
The Labour Party also received less from trade unions than it did in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections. In 2019, the party declared £5m from unions. In 2024, it was £2.4m.
Unite, a major union backer in 2019, did not donate to Labour during the 2024 campaign, however it’s General Secretary Sharon Graham has praised the Labour Party’s King’s Speech, recently saying that it was packed full of measures which will begin transforming the UK for the better.
“The King’s Speech shows why Britain needs a Labour Government”, said Graham.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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