Alex Salmond surpasses election crowdfunding target

Alex Salmond's campaign to be reelected as MP for the Gordon constituency has received a boost after his online crowdfunder surpassed its target.

Alex Salmond is campaigning for reelection in Gordon. Picture: John Devlin

The former First Minister aimed to raise £5,000 by June 4 but has comfortably reached that ammount with weeks to spare.

Salmond is one of hundreds of candidates from all parties who have set up online crowdfunders to help pay for their campaign expenses.

A message from his campaign team said: “The money raised as part of this campaign is crucial to ensure we have sufficient funds for leafleting, canvassing and publicity materials.

“This is critical to ensure that Alex’s achievements and the keys policies of the SNP are communicated to everyone in Gordon.

“We know that not everyone is in a position to contribute so we would ask that you get involved in whichever way you can. We will be out campaigning every week and weekend, canvassing, leafletting, holding street stalls and phoning constituents.”

Websites such as GoFundMe, Crowdfunder and Crowdpac are all filled with politicians looking for donations.

Crowdfunder told the BBC that in the week since the UK election was called, more than £200,000 was raised for political projects on its site.

It is expecting a 50 per cent increase in the number of candidates using crowdfunding compared to 2015.

The Electoral Commission regulates election spending and explains candidates must collect enough information from donors to be able to check they are allowed to accept their cash.

“When crowdfunding, campaigners must only accept donations over a certain value from a permissible source,” the commission said in a statement.

“For candidates that means donations exceeding £50, for political parties and non-party campaigners it is £500.

“Candidates, parties and non-party campaigners can only accept donations from permissible, mainly UK sources.

“They must therefore collect information from every donor to ensure that they can properly check that each donation is from a permissible source. If a donation is not from a permissible source, it must be returned within 30 days.”