SNP's income doubles to £1.8m as the cash flows in

Published on Thursday 30 July 2009 22:13

THE SNP's growing financial muscle was revealed yesterday in new figures that show its core income has nearly doubled in six years.

Annual accounts for 2008 show that the party pulled in nearly 1.8 million in 2008. In 2002, another year when party funding was not inflated by an election campaign, its income was only 970,000.

Details released by the Electoral Commission also showed that Conservatives spent 31.9m in 2008 – fractionally less than the party's income of 32.4m.

Meanwhile, Labour spent 26.2m of the 34m it raised, as it attempted to reduce its massive debts.

The SNP's income for 2008 came as the party enjoyed its first full year in power, after its victory in the 2007 Scottish elections.

Though there was no election to campaign for, it hauled in 541,608 in donations, with two donors offering more than 50,000 each. In 2002, donations amounted to 163,000.

The party's annual conference brought in a further 335,916. With costs amounting to 195,000, this suggests the three-day event earned the SNP well over 100,000.

The SNP has been criticised by opposition parties since it emerged that, after getting into power, it was charging corporate clients up to 9,500 each to hire a minister to give a speech during the conference.

Corporate interests were also offered a lunch with finance secretary John Swinney at 850 a plate.

The party's coffers were further swollen by record membership income, which climbed to 367,000 – 18 per cent up on the previous year.

The increased income meant the SNP was able to increase its spending on campaigns massively, up from 337,000 in 2002 to nearly 500,000 in 2008.

The figures suggest that the SNP is massively out-spending Scottish Labour, its nearest rival, whose income, according to the figures yesterday, amounted to only 396,195.

But Scottish Labour pointed out last night that its figures did not include all sums given to Labour from Scotland.

For example, a donation of 1m handed to the party by the author JK Rowling was not included in the Scottish party's figures.

Scottish Labour also claims to have a higher overall membership than the SNP, with about 18,000 paid-up members north of the Border.

However, the SNP is catching up – its figures show that party membership now stands at 15,097, up from 9,450 in 2003.

The party's coffers have been turned round since the early part of the decade, when it faced consistent claims that it was struggling to survive.

That changed during the 2007 campaign, when its spending power was massively boosted by several high-profile donations, including 577,000 from Stagecoach founder Brian Souter and 100,000 from Kwik Fit founder Sir Tom Farmer.

A party spokesman said last night that its increased income as a symptom of its success. "This is down to the membership increasing. The party has grown a lot over the last six years," he said.

But the figures in Scotland were dwarfed by the sums for the UK as a whole, with the three major parties, Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats spending about 64m between them.

Labour's accounts showed that it cut its net debt from 18.9m to 17.5m, but the party's income from donations fell from 11.2m in 2007 to 9.5m in 2008.