A quick aggregation of the declared donations to the Ed Miliband for Leader campaign (so far – I’d expect some donations in the last stages of the campaign still to appear):
£133,000 from trade unions (43% of the total)
£80,951 from other large donors (i.e. over £1,500) (26%)
£95,000 from small donors (31%)
£308,951 in total
Source: donations declared on the Ed Miliband website.
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19 Comments
Have you got a total and breakdown of contributions to David Miliband’s campaign?
@boilermaker David M got 8% of his donations from unions, I hear he got a lot of large donations from single donors tho.
The problem with unions is that their leadership speak with one voice on behalf of millions of people – profoundly undemocratic, and often union leaderships do not represent the views of most workers, who aren’t union members.
Much better that workers make their voices known through elections to the government.
blanco
Needless to say I disagree. Union leaderships are democratically elected and they recommend to the members who they think is the best candidate. The members are then free to vote for whomever they choose in the privacy of their own homes.
It’s not a perfect system but if you believe in collective political action, as millions of us obviously do, it’s the best chance we have of redressing the balance which is tilted in favour of the millionaires who bankrolled David Miliband’s campaign.
@blanco – To be fair, Ed Milliband won the votes of individual trades unionists, rather than a block vote, since those who pay the political levy as part of their union subscription each received an individual vote.
Another good point (Hat Tip: letters column in today’s Guardian) is that Ed gained a ‘First past the post’ majority of all the votes cast – it was only after MPs’ and (to a lesser extent) Constituency Members’ votes were ‘weighted up’ in accordance with Labour’s convoluted system that David edged ahead. A lead that was, of course, wiped out by the alternative vote system.
“Much better that workers make their voices known through elections to the government.”
I tried that, by voting Lib Dem in May. So forgive me for some scepticism!
If you count all votes equally, overall, in the final tally, Ed won 175,519 votes, and David only 147,220.
And your point is?
If this is not intended to be a provocative, tribal article I apologise in advance.
I imagine the point is the one disappointingly parroted by Simon Hughes- that it’s some kind of bribe and his union paymasters will expect him to do what they say.
Simon Hughes has massive anti-union form.
He said in a recent lecture that union-funded socialist parties had no place in politics.
maybe only Ashcroft and Murdoch should fund, decide who we vote for
after all the Coalition have now allowed Murdoch to own more local radio, tv and newspapers
and Ashcroft millionas won the odd marginal
very democratic
The donations from the unions and comments attributed to them are ill informed. All unions can only pay towards Political Parties if the members opt to pay into them. The donations and funds are then handled by a national committee usually of no less that 12 people directly elected from each of the geographical regions that make up the union… pretty democratic. Oh and the leaders usually dont have a vote.
Boilermaker: What’s your view of how the GMB (my former union as it happens) behaved, sending out the ballot papers to its members in an envelope that on the outside urged people to vote for Ed Miliband?
In answer to your first question, no – I’ve not got those numbers though some of the donations above the threshold are listed on the EC’s website and I’d expect all the final figures for donations about the declaration threshold to become public via the Electoral Commission’s website fairly soon. I don’t think his campaign has provided any figures for donations that fall below the threshold for declaring.
Cuse: How about the provision of interesting information?
If Ed Miliband getting £133k in donations from unions means he’s in the control of cthe unions, what should I conclude from the Lib Dems getting £2.5m in donations from a convicted fraudster?
@John
Good point, I hope you are not holding your breath for a reply!
The trade union movement have historically been very suspicious of the Liberals and it is not difficult to see why going by the attitudes displayed on this site. Donations by trade unionists are just automatically assumed to be a negative
John: Who is making that claim in this thread or in the post though? As with several other comments on this thread you and others are rubbishing claims that no-one has made in the post or comments. There does seem to be an odd eagerness to raise straw men for the purpose of then immediately disagreeing with them. But hey, at least that way you know you’re only arguing with yourself so you can choose who wins 🙂
But as I hinted at in a previous comment, I think the GMB has done serious damage to its own reputation and that of other unions by sending out ballot papers in an envelope urging people to vote for a particular candidate. If a local council sent out ballot papers in a “Vote Conservative” envelope wouldn’t you be outraged? What makes that sort of behaviour ok in a party leadership contest? I struggle to think of an answer, but if you’ve got a good one which defends that sort of union action, then let’s hear it.
@Steve
A genuine Q please, if the Unions can only donate the political levy if the member gives consent, why is there a need for a committee? Surely the Union(s) must know the total they are allowed to pay and could give it directly to the Labour Party?
Chris sh, because the political levy does not in whole go into the Labour parties coffers. It can be used for anything political, take the CWU for instance , a proportion of their political levy will go to fighting privatisation. The committee decides what percentage of the political levy goes to the Labour party.
Why do Q Hotels need to get involved in the Labour leadership election?