Electoral Commission
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Sixth and final pre-poll donations and loans report at the General Election published

Between Monday 4 May to Thursday 7 May almost £600,000 (£595,126) in donations to four registered political parties in Great Britain were reported to the Electoral Commission as it releases the sixth and final weekly publication of donations and loans at the General Election. In total, political parties have reported receiving almost £14.4 million in donations between 30 March and 7 May.  

By law (The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000), political parties had to submit weekly donation and loan reports to the Commission if they were standing candidates in the UK parliamentary election and they had received any donations or loans over £7,500. 

Parties must notify the Commission if they are not standing candidates in order to be exempt from weekly reporting. 

The four political parties that reported receiving donations over £7,500 in the last four days of the campaign period were:

  • Conservative Party – £295,127
  • Labour Party – £10,000
  • Liberal Democrats – £230,000
  • United Kingdom Independence Party - £60,000

The United Kingdom Independence Party also reported a loan of £12,500

The Conservative Party reported receiving £9,815 of public funds from the Scottish Parliament.

You can view details of all reportable donations to registered political parties in the first pre-poll period here:http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/189755/6th-Weekly-Pre-poll-donations-and-loans-summary-document.pdf

Total amount of donations reported by political parties between 30 March and 7 May

Between 30 March and 7 May, seven registered political parties reported receiving donations totalling £14,386,370 million (excluding public funds). The figures for each party are:

  • Conservative Party – £6,100,588
  • Labour Party – £5,957,862
  • United Kingdom Independence Party – £1,684,728
  • Liberal Democrats – £601,000
  • Green Party – £18,400
  • Co-operative Party – £13,792
  • Scottish National Party - £10,000 

Non-party campaigners

Changes introduced by the Transparency of Lobbying, Non Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014, mean registered non-party campaigners – individuals or organisations that campaign at elections, but are not standing as candidates or political parties – must also submit weekly pre-poll donation reports to the Commission if they have received any amounts above £7,500 to use for the purpose of their regulated campaign activity. 

The Commission received one pre-poll report from the Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) who received two donations from the same donor which aggregated to £8,000 and were therefore reportable.

To search donations on the Electoral Commission’s website, click here   

For further information contact:
Karim Aziz in the Electoral Commission press office on 020 7271 0704 orpress@electoralcommission.org.uk 
Out of office hours 07789 920 414

Notes to editors

  1. The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the UK’s democratic process. We regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections and are responsible for the conduct and regulation of referendums held under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA) 2000. 
  2. There were six weekly pre-poll donations and loans reports. Four pre-poll reports were published before polling day (7 May). Two have been published after polling day.
  3. Political parties accounting units are not required to submit pre poll donations and loans reports.
  4. The first quarterly donations and loans to political parties (January – March 2015) will be published on 28 May 2015.
  5. In the pre-poll weekly reports, political parties must report donations that they are given during the relevant period. However, under PPERA, parties have 30 days after receiving a donation to check that it is from a permissible source and to decide whether to accept it. If a party decides to return a donation, that will be recorded in Quarter 2 2015 donations and loans report which will be published by the Electoral Commission in August 2015.
  6. Two hundred and eight parties were required to submit weekly reports to the Electoral Commission. As of 18 May, the Commission had received donation reports from 118 parties and borrowing reports from 111 parties, including ‘nil returns’. Where a political party has not submitted a donation or loan report, the Commission has contacted those parties that failed to submit a weekly report to establish their reasons for this. The Commission will consider what, if any, action is appropriate in each case and in accordance with its enforcement policy. 
  7. For more information about the rules for political parties during the General Election period, see the Commission’s media handbook here.
  8. Registered non-party campaigners do not need to submit a ‘nil return’ to the Electoral Commission during the General Election campaign period.
  9. To see which non-party campaigners registered with the Electoral Commission, click here

 

Channel website: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk

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