Donors put in £25m for Tory election flop

CONSERVATIVE donors gave Theresa May a record £25million to fight the snap election earlier this year, it has emerged, almost £2million for every seat the party eventually lost.

Donations to all parties for the quarter ahead of the election hit a record £40million – and the Tories raised more than half of that, the electoral Commission has revealed.

Almost £25 million was given to the party during the three months before the vote, in which Mrs May would go on to lose 13 seats and her parliamentary majority. The second-biggest quarter for donations to the Conservatives was in the first half of 2015, just before the general election that handed David Cameron a majority.

Donors gave more than £15million before that vote, making it the second-biggest quarter on record.

Labour raised more than £9million before this year’s election in June, far less than the Conservatives. However, the amount of money spent by the parties has not yet been published, as the deadline for submitting receipts is December.

The biggest donation revealed by the Electoral Commission yesterday was given to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party by Unite, which gave more than £4 million – almost half of the total raised by the party over the period.

The commission recorded the highest amount of cash given to parties, at £40.1 million, including a number of smaller donations to parties including Ukip and the BNP.

Labour also benefited from gifts of £1,253,711 from the GMB union, £1,039,794 from the Communication Workers Union, £922,586 from Unison, and £411,340 from Usdaw. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association also donated money to the Labour party.

A Conservative source said it showed Labour’s pockets were being “lined” by union bosses who pull the strings to influence the party’s policies.