Electoral Commission data: Here’s how much money donors have given to political parties and politicians in 2015
The amount of money donated to both political parties and politicians since the General Election has – as you might expect – dropped substantially.
But now new data from the Electoral Commission shows that with the London mayoral elections and Labour leadership contest, the amount received by political parties and regulated donees between 8 May – 30 September was just over £14m – not a bad sum.
Read more: Where have politicians raised their money from?
Here's the breakdown of total donations this year:
And despite the fact Labour went through a leadership contest, the Conservatives remain the party to receive the most donations:
But Labour MPs dominate the list of the individuals whose campaigns have received the most – although Jeremy Corbyn remains notably low compared with his Labour leadership rivals. Zac Goldsmith, a contender for London mayor, and Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, languish behind them:
Meanwhile, of the most generous donors, the top four are (unsurprisingly) unions, who contributed heavily to individual Labour candidates campaigns as well as to the party.
Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell Media Group gave its money to the UK Independence Party, while Griffin, Glendonbrook Lupton and JCB gave their cash to the Conservatives.
Growth Financial Services gave its money to both Ukip and the Tories, while the Electoral Commission split its money across the parties.
Read more: Five charts showing where political parties get their money
Recently-under-fire Lycamobile is a well known Conservative donor – though the Conservatives have been under pressure to halt donations from the company after an investigation into it found it engaged in alleged suspicious behaviour.
As above, donors are a mix of companies, individual, trade unions and other entities. Here's how much each type of donor has given between the start of the year and 30 September:
