During the general election campaign, Labour received more donations than any other party, totaling more than £9.5 million.
The Conservatives raised less than £1.9 million in the end, according to the elections watchdog’s final totals. This is less than ten percent of the amount the party raised during the 2019 election when it declared over £19 million.
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Labour’s largest donor was Lord David Sainsbury, who gave the party £2.5m, while the Conservatives’ largest source of funding was a lottery that raised a total of £225,000 during the campaign.
The figures include donations made between May 30, when Parliament was closed, and July 4, when elections were held.
Labour Received More Donations Than Any Other Party
Total received between 30 May and 4 July 2024
The campaign’s largest donor was Lord Sainsbury, a former chairman of the Sainsbury’s grocery chain.
More than £8 million in donations to Labour came from ten different sources during his tenure as a science and innovation minister in Tony Blair’s administration.
These individuals included two labour unions, the sculptor Antony Gormley, the production company Toledo Productions, tech investor Danny Luhde-Thompson, the former professional poker player Derek Webb (who founded the Campaign for Fairer Gambling), and hedge fund managers Martin Taylor and Stuart Roden.
Analysis of Electoral Commission data shows that the Conservatives received a total contribution of £225,000 from the National Conservative Draws Society, a weekly lottery licensed by the Gambling Commission. This was the largest amount declared by the party from any one source during the campaign.
Each political party has its lottery, including Labour and Liberal Democrats.
The largest Liberal Democrat donor of the campaign was Safwan Adam’s real estate and management consulting firm, Adam Management Holdings, which gave the Liberal Democrats nearly £480,000 in addition to £20,000 to the Green Party.
Britain Means Business, a company that Richard Tice, the deputy leader, is a director of, was the largest donor to Reform UK. During the campaign, the party received a total of £500,000 from the company owned by the newly elected MP for Boston and Skegness.
Zia Yusuf, a businessman, was the second-largest Reform UK donor, donating £200,000, and he has since taken over as party chairman.
Labour’s union revenue in the 2019–2024 election was £2.4 million, of which £1.49 million came from the public sector union Unison and the remaining £2.4 million from six other unions. This represents a significant decrease from the £5 million the party declared in the union revenue in the 2015, 2017, and 2019 elections.
Unite, a significant union supporter in 2019, refrained from giving to Labour in the 2024 election. It declined to support the party’s platform for the general election because it did not go far enough in defending the rights of workers and jobs in the oil and gas sector.
