Tories won donations battle in election run-up

The Conservatives received around £140,000 more in donations than the Labour Party in the run-up to general election day.

Figures from the political finance watchdog, the Electoral Commission show the Tories received donations totaling £6.1 million to Labour’s £5.97 million between 30 March and 7 May.

UKIP received a total of £1.68 million and the Liberal Democrats £601,000.

Nine unions made donations to the Labour Party. The Unite and GMB general unions gave £1.6 million and £1.1 million respectively, while public service union UNISON gave over £800,000.

The CWU communications workers’ union gave over £591,070 and shop and distribution workers’ union Usdaw £400,480. Rail unions Aslef and TSSA gave £61,362 and £38,590 respectively, industrial union Community £24,242 and construction workers’ union UCATT £25,000.

While these unions were making donations on behalf of millions of workers, the £366,850 given to the Conservative Party in three tranches by Mrs Fitriani Hay, co-owner of the luxury goods group JMH, was on behalf on one rich family.

http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Search/Donations?currentPage=1&rows=10&sort=Value&order=desc&tab=2&closed=criteria&et=pp&date=Received&from=2015-03-30&to=2015-05-07&prePoll=true&postPoll=false