Member News
Political parties raked in £17m in donations between them during the fourth quarter of 2009.
A report by the Electoral Commission revealed that donations received between October 1 2009 and December 31 2009 totalled £17,088,525.
This figure only includes donations above £5,000 to the central party and above £1,000 to accounting units.
Public funding, donations reported late, impermissible donations and donations from unidentifiable donors are excluded from the calculations.
The figures show that the Conservative Party received 62 per cent of all donations, Labour with 29 per cent, the Liberal Democrats 6 per cent with the other parties taking the remaining 3 per cent.
Almost two-thirds of all donations were made by individuals. Thanks to Sir Nigel Doughty and Lord David Sainsbury, Labour received the only two donations of £1m or more.
The Conservative Party reported receiving four impermissible donations amounting to £4,000 while the UKIP admitted they took a £1,000 donation during the period. Both must be returned to the respectable donor within 30 days.
Public funds received by parties amounted to £2.5m with Labour receiving most of this funding through policy development grants (£301,551) while Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats received funds accrued through short money from the House of Commons, receiving £1,164,370 and £426,647 respectively.
The Tories lead the way through Quarter 4 2009 receiving 583 donations totalling £10,481,949 while Labour raked in just under £5m (342 donations) and the Liberal Democrats just over £1m (377 donations).
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd