[A-List] UK state: party funding

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Labour donors stump up £5.4m

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
Wednesday May 14, 2003
The Guardian

Four wealthy donors bailed out Labour in the first three months of this year
by contributing nearly £3m to the party, according to the latest returns
from the Electoral Commission published yesterday.

The science minister, Lord Sainsbury, gave £2.5m - nearly half the £5.4m
donated to the party over the period. The other big donors were Sir Ronald
Cohen, who gave £250,000, and the Sunderland football club chairman, Bob
Murray, who was recently awarded a CBE for public service. He gave £100,000.

The Europhile City financier Derek Tullett, who made almost £20m in January
when he sold his broking firm, also gave the party £100,000.

Patrick Stewart, better known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the sci-fi cult
series Star Trek, donated £50,000. Among the smaller donors, David Lammy,
the junior health minister, gave £1,820.

Labour still received substantial donations from trade unions including
Unison, Amicus, Usdaw and the TGWU. The Fire Brigades Union - in dispute
with the government during this period - gave more than £12,000.

Donations totalling £61,381 that should have been reported by Labour in
previous quarters have been included in the latest returns.

The Conservatives received more than £2m over the same period, mainly from
wealthy individuals. The largest donation - more than £115,000 - was raised
at the party's winter ball.

The Liberal Democrats raised £281,817, of which the largest sum - some
£125,000 - came for research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Some 70 registered small parties failed to submit returns but are thought to
have had nothing to declare.