Politics

Keir Starmer’s donor list makes a mockery of ‘dark money’ allegations

Keir Starmer has released his donor list in line with parliamentary procedure after coming under pressure to reveal who is funding his campaign.

The frontrunner in the Labour leadership campaign was challenged to reveal all of his donations by Jon Trickett, a prominent supporter of Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Both Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy have released what they say are full lists of their donations on their own websites.

Register of members’ financial interests

But Starmer chose to follow the usual rules for MPs by relying on the register of members’ financial interests, which was updated with the latest information yesterday afternoon.

The largest donation of the new tranche came from Robert Latham, a Camden Labour activist and barrister who practised at Doughty Street Chambers like Starmer.

Richard Hermer, a human rights barrister, donated £5,000 and Labour Lambeth councillor Iain Simpson donated a further £2,500.

The total amount declared by Starmer so far during the leadership election for his campaign is £125,521.

This is not the total received, as MPs are given 30 days between accepting a donation and having to declare it.

Funding

Starmer has declared about £10,000 of donations from Unison previously and his campaign said it received about £100,000 from crowdfunding.

Long-Bailey’s declaration shows donations of around £215,000 from Unite, more than £52,000 from the Communication Workers Union and nearly £120,000 from Momentum.

Nandy’s campaign release shows just under £200,000 of donations from a variety of individual donors and the GMB.

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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