Unions' election-period donations approach £3.5 million

Seventeen trade unions provided £3.48 million of funding to the Labour Party centrally in the second half of the year, according to figures from the government-appoitned Electoral Commission, which now oversees the funding of political parties.

The CWU post and telecoms union (£1,003,905), engineering and electrical union AEEU (£790,241) and the GMB general union (£433,755) head the list. Shop and distribution workers' union USDAW ranked fourth (£418,458) followed by public services union UNISON (£367,912).

The party also received over £1 million from individuals with 29 people giving a total of £1,087,798. The largest donation - £200,000 - came from Sir Alan Sugar, the chair of electronics group Amstrad.

Lakshmi Mittal of steel group Ispat International gave £125,000 and Gulam Noon the founder of ready made Indian food firm Noons gave £100,000.

There were also £100,000 donations from venture capitalist Sir Ronald Cohen, philanthropist Sir Sigmund Sternberg and financier Christopher Ondaatje.

Several smaller donations came from more familiar names. Comedian Eddie Izzard and playwright Michael Frayn gave £10,000 each and the actor Richard Wilson of One Foot in the Grave fame gave £5,000 to Labour's head office.

UNION DONATIONS TO LABOUR

Union Total donations (£)

CWU 1,003,905

AEEU 790,241

GMB 433,755

USDAW 418,458

UNISON 367,912

GPMU 141,475

ISTC 70,979

MSF 50,600

KFAT 47,900

RMT 37,046

UCATT 31,625

ASLEF 23,680

TSSA 20,990

TGWU 19,122

FBU 11,500

NUM 8,694

CATU 6,500

Total 3,484,382