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The Conservatives have raised roughly a tenth of the amount in the first three weeks of the 2024 campaign as they did over the same period during the last election.
In a sign of the incumbent’s struggle to build momentum ahead of next week’s vote, Electoral Commission data published on Friday showed Rishi Sunak’s party raked in just £1.2mn in large donations in the three weeks from May 30 when parliament was dissolved.
The figure for the Conservatives is significantly less than the £12.2mn they had raised by the same point in 2019.
Labour has attracted £8.6mn in cash and non-cash donations in the same period, more than it raised across the entirety of the previous three pre-election periods.
The bulk of donations for Labour in this year’s campaign have been driven by wealthy individuals. Sir Keir Starmer’s party received £2.5mn from Lord David Sainsbury, scion of the eponymous supermarket chain, in week two of the campaign.
Parties have collectively raised around £12.2mn in total from large donors each giving at least £11,180 during this year’s campaign.
The data published on Friday included figures from the third week of the campaign. Labour received roughly £3.3mn of the £4mn raised in total from large donors by all political parties in the period.
The centre-left party took around £1.9mn in total from five trade unions and £500,000 from the sculptor Antony Gormley.
By comparison, the Conservatives raised £375,000 including £100,000 from a company linked to telecoms entrepreneur Charles Wigoder and £18,000 in cash from Robert Jenrick, a Tory leadership hopeful.
Donation figures highlight the hurdles the Tory party has faced in this year’s campaign following a series of gaffes and after it was engulfed in a betting scandal. It has been unable to rein in Labour’s double-digit poll lead.
Labour is polling around 21 points ahead of the Conservatives with less than a week until election day on July 4.
Senior Conservative figures have pointed to their sizeable war chest from last year, suggesting Labour are “playing catch-up”. But other officials suggested the party had spent a significant amount ahead of calling the election.
The Tories received £47.4mn in donations last year, well in excess of the £35mn limit on election spending. Labour took in £21.7mn, including a record £13mn in individual donations.
In total, all UK political parties raised £79.2mn in 2023, up from £38.3mn the previous year.
Data from the period between when Sunak called the poll on May 22 and May 29, when some large donations were made to parties, will be published by the Electoral Commission as part of data for the second quarter of the year after the campaign ends.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK recorded just under £100,000 in week three for a total of almost £1mn in large donations so far in the campaign — on a par with the total raised by the Liberal Democrats. That is less than half the £2.5mn the Brexit party had raised by this same point as in 2019.
Reform’s largest donor during the pre-poll period has been Britain Means Business Ltd, an organisation owned by party chair Richard Tice that has donated £1.7mn under various guises since 2019.
The SNP has received one reportable cash donation so far in this year’s campaign. It raised £130,000 from a single individual in the first week.
