...and is democracy in our country up for sale to the highest bidder?

DEEP State is a theory which has long haunted the corridors of power. That the people who fund political parties and do business with the Government buy their own influence on the state.

But who donates to the politicians – and who does the best out of it? Who really OWNS Britain? Businesses, individuals, foreign governments, trade unions and other organisations have donated a total of £536million to influence British democracy this decade. MPs, political parties and campaigners have accepted almost 30,000 different donations between 2010 and 2018, the Electoral Commission’s register shows. Individuals have donated almost half this total at £237m between them. Businesses and trade unions have donated roughly equal amounts at £94m and £90m respectively.

The Electoral Commission has registered 35 different donations of £1m or more since 2010 from individuals, trade unions and companies.

Some £73m of this £460m figure came from public funds, such as “short money” given to opposition parties in the House of Commons and Policy Development Grants, given to parties to help formulate policy.

Some of the donations were actually paid-for visits for MPs, often put on by foreign governments. At least £30m of donations were accepted during the EU referendum campaign on both the Leave and the Remain sides. MPs and organisations accepted a total of £33m in April 2015, the highest of any single month this decade.

The 2015 general election followed a month later. Conspiracy theorists will point to this as a prime example of the Deep State in action.

...was paid to influence our country’s democracy in this decade alone