Labour’s £1.8m donations from unions dwarfs rivals

Labour leader Ed Miliband. Picture: Greg Macvean

Ed Miliband’s party received £1,887,312 in donations – the vast majority coming from trade unions – compared with the £501,850 given to David Cameron’s party between Monday, 30 March and Sunday, 5 April.

Donations to Ukip amounted to £35,416, outstripping the £20,000 given to the Lib Dems, while the Green Party received £8,400.

By law, political parties must submit weekly donation and loan reports to the commission if they are fielding candidates in the general election and have received donations or loans over £7,500. There were no donations recorded to the SNP over that week.

The figures were released in the first of four donation reports that will be published prior to polling day.

Unions accounted for more than £1.5 million of Labour’s donations, with Unite giving £1,005,000, Unison £506,240 and the Communication Workers Union £51,072. The hairdresser John Frieda gave the Tories £20,000 and rival Toni & Guy donated £10,000 to Labour.