Tories dwarfed by Labour in fundraising as big donors ditch Conservatives

The Tories have been dwarfed by the Labour Party in fundraising as big donors ditch Rishi Sunak’s party ahead of the 4 July general election.

Figures released on Friday reveal that the Conservatives raised £292,500 from 6 June to 12 June, just weeks after the prime minister called the general election.

By contrast, donors flocked to get behind Sir Keir Starmer’s bid to enter Downing Street, pumping £4.4m into the Labour Party’s coffers.

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After a series of polls put the Tories on course for a historic defeat, the Electoral Commission statistics are the latest sign of the electoral wipeout facing the party.

The dire Tory fundraising figure is also less than a third of the £742,000 raised by Reform UK since Nigel Farage’s shock return as leader and its Clacton election candidate. And, with polls also suggesting Mr Sunak could even struggle to return the Tories as parliament’s second largest party, the Conservatives also raised less than Sir Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats, which brought in £335,000.

It comes just days after The Independent revealed Labour had outspent all the other parties combined on social media adverts since the general election was called.

Analysis by campaign spending non-profit Who Targets Me found Labour has spent over £2.4m on social media ads since the general election campaign began. Meanwhile the Conservatives spent just £906,916 amid rumours the party was facing financial difficulties.

The Tories were also forced to forego airing a flashy election broadcast, choosing instead to replay the video of a press conference given by chief Treasury secretary Laura Trott a week earlier.

By contrast, Labour aired a professionally produced film of Sir Keir talking to football pundit Gary Neville as the pair walked through the Lake District.

The latest commission figures mean the Tories have raised just £889,000 during the campaign so far.

By the same point in the 2019 campaign under Boris Johnson’s leadership the party had raised £8.7m.

The top donations were two contributions of £50,000 from Bestway Wholesale, ultimately owned by Tory peer Lord Zameer Choudrey through the Guernsey-based Bestway Group, and an organisation called “The Spring Lunch”.

The Spring Lunch is an unincorporated association, so does not have to provide records of who controls it, but does list an address in Pulham St Mary, Norfolk, in its details with the Electoral Commission.

In contrast, Labour raised £4.4m in the second week of the election thanks in part to a £2.5m donation from former supermarket boss Lord David Sainsbury.

Other significant Labour donors include Autoglass chief Gary Lubner, who gave £900,000, and hedge fund manager Martin Taylor, who gave £700,000.

Trade union Aslef provided £100,000 to the party, as did former Cable and Wireless executive Nick Razey.

Labour’s total donations for the first two weeks of the campaign amounted to £5.3m.

Reform UK raised £742,000 in the second week of the campaign, largely thanks to a £500,000 donation from Britain Means Business Ltd, a company controlled by party chair Richard Tice.

The party also received £50,000 from former pop star and Neighbours actor Holly Valance, who hosted a fundraising event for former US president Donald Trump in London two weeks after his conviction for falsifying business records.

It had been reported that Reform had received £1.5m since Nigel Farage declared he would stand as a candidate in Clacton.

But the figures released on Friday show the party had raised £882,000 in major donations during the first two weeks of the campaign, only just below the figure received by the Conservatives.

Emma Levin, associate director at pollster Savanta, said: “Donors like to back a winner, and all indications are that Labour is on for a stonking majority.

“Savanta’s latest Business Tracker suggests that Starmer and Reeves have done a very good job in rebranding Labour as a party that business leaders can trust, with a 13-point lead among business decision makers.”