Tories lost their majority despite raking in £15 million more than Labour
2 min read
Theresa May lost her Commons majority despite the Conservatives raising £15 million more than Labour in the run-up to the election.
Figures released by the Electoral Commission show that the Tories received nearly £25m in donations between 1 April and 30 June, compared to Labour's £9.5m.
Overall, political parties were given a record-breaking £40m by donors over the three-month period.
Mrs May called the election on 18 April at a time when the Conservatives enjoyed a huge opinion poll lead over Labour.
But following a disastrous Tory campaign, during which he Prime Minister was criticised for her leadership style, her majority of 17 was wiped out.
The Conservatives were still comfortably the largest party, but Mrs May needed to strike a confidence and supply deal with the DUP to get key votes through the Commons.
According to the Electoral Commission data, the top donors in the second quarter of 2017 were the Unite union, which gave Labour £4,165,935.
JCB were the Tories' largest single donor, giving the party £1.5m.
The figures also show that the Liberal Democrats received £4,358,410 in the three-month period, the SNP got £596,000, with the Women's Equality Party next on £282,931.
The Greens raised £176,363, Ukip £156,455 and Plaid Cymru just £5,300.
Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission's director of political finance and regulation, said: "The snap general election prompted political parties to raise record-breaking sums in the second quarter of 2017.
"The reporting and publication of this data is key to providing voters with transparency about how political parties financed their general election campaigns. Voters can have confidence that, where parties fail to submit information by a statutory deadline and there is no reasonable explanation, we will take a robust approach in dealing with these breaches."
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