Unions stump up election cash

Unions provided the Labour Party with substantial financial support during the general election period. Five unions gave eight donations totalling pst835,000, according to the Electoral Commission, which is now responsible for overseeing the financing of political parties.

The biggest donation of pst500,000 came from the engineering and electrical union AEEU, followed by pst250,000 from shop and distribution workers' union USDAW. Print union GPMU gave pst63,000 in three donations, communications workers' union CWU gave two donations totalling pst16,000, and manufacturing, science and finance union MSF gave pst6,000.

In addition the party received over pst500,000 million in affiliation fees during the election period, including pst335,125 from general union GMB, and pst250,000 from USDAW.

Donations from unions, companies and individuals totalled just over pst2 million. The largest donations from individuals were pst200,000 from Sir Alan Sugar of electronics group Amstrad and pst125,000 from steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who heads Ispat International, a past corporate donor to the party.

The Conservative Party over the election period received nearly three times more than the Labour Party getting pst5,846,344 in cash donations. However that included the pst5 million donation from oil heir and multimillionaire Sir Paul Getty.

The Liberal Democrats received just pst45,100 in the month of the election, including pst30,000 from Lord Jacobs, a long time financial supporter of the party.

See June Labour Research, page 5, for details of donations made earlier in the year.