The Conservatives lined their coffers with 26 times more big ticket donations than Labour in the first week of the general election.
Boris Johnson’s party took a whopping £5 million from donors who pledged over £7,500, far more than just £218,500 taken by Labour.
One sided
The new figures have been published by the Electoral Commission as the battle for Number 10 heats up.
In total, £6,507,146 in donations was reported to the Commission between November 6 and 12 – less than the £7,054,844 for the same period in 2017.
That said, the donations were patently one sided.
Labour received the fourth-highest number of big ticket donations so far, behind the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats (£275,000) and Brexit Party (£250,000), although Jeremy Corbyn’s party traditionally raises more money through small donations, which are not declared in the same way.
Whoa….
— Theo Usherwood (@theousherwood) November 21, 2019
For every £1 the Labour Party raised during the first week of this election campaign, the Tories raised £25. pic.twitter.com/5jfnpQ4RP4
Russian money
The Brexit Party took a single donation of £250,000 from businessman Jeremy Hosking – a former Tory donor who has been a major backer of Nigel Farage’s operation.
Tory donors include Russian banker Lubov Chernukhin, whose husband was formerly an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2018 the Tories accepted her bid of £30,000 in return for a private dinner with defence secretary Gavin Williamson in the Churchill War Rooms.
And she paid £160,000 at a previous event to play tennis with Boris Johnson .
The biggest backer of the Conservatives was theatre producer John Gore who gave £1 million.
He was also the party’s biggest donor last year.
The next three largest donors were the travel company Trailfinders, Countrywide Developers and WA Capital, who each gave £500,000 pounds to the party.
Related: Tories trick voters with fake Labour manifesto website