Labour raised £10 million more than the Tories in the three months before the election

New figures show that Labour raised £10 million more than the Conservatives in the second quarter of this year thanks to a £4 million donation from a hedge fund.

Data released by the Electoral Commission on Thursday shows that Labour received £26.1 million in donations between April and June, while the Conservatives received £16.1 million.

In total, political parties raised £51.6 million in the three months, more than double the amount raised in the same period in 2023. However, Jackie Killeen of the Electoral Commission said this was “not surprising” as the donations covered the election campaign.

The largest donation to Labour came from hedge fund Quadrature Capital, which gave the party £4 million on 28 May, just before the start of the election reporting period.

Owned by investors Greg Skinner and Suneil Setiya, the company was Quadrature's first political donation, but the company's charitable arm has donated money to environmental causes before.

Other significant Labour donations included £2.5 million from Lord David Sainsbury, a long-time Labour donor, and £2.1 million from Ecotricity, the company owned by environmentalist Dale Vince.

Hedge fund manager Martin Taylor donated a further £2.1 million, while Labour Together – which is strongly supported by Mr Taylor and businessman Sir Trevor Chinn – donated a further £840,000.

The unions gave Labour around £5.5 million during this period, supporting both central and local parties. The biggest donors were Unison and Usdaw.

For the Conservatives, it was the controversial businessman Frank Hester who made the largest donation: he gave the party five million pounds in early May through his company The Phoenix Partnership.

Mr Hester, who has donated £15m to the Tories since 2023, found himself at the centre of a scandal earlier this year after he was accused of saying that long-serving Labour MP Diane Abbott had made him want to “hate all black women”.

Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the Conservative Party should be “ashamed” of accepting money from Hester and called on the Tory leadership hopefuls to commit to returning the donation and rejecting further offers.

In the second quarter of 2024, the Liberal Democrats raised £5.3 million in donations, including more than £500,000 from businessman Safwan Adam, while Reform UK raised £2.6 million, including £500,000 from party leader Richard Rice's Britain Means Business campaign.

Former Reform Party deputy leader Ben Habib is said to have donated £50,000 to the Northern Irish party Traditional Unionist Voice, with which the party had formed an electoral pact.

The Scottish National Party raised £259,481 in donations during the three-month period, while the Green Party received £238,851.