The Electoral Commission has published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties this week, and its website allow us to gain a picture of the Lib Dems’ fundraising efforts over the years. Below is the full breakdown of cash and non-cash donations received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004.
Five/six-figure gifts coming from the following: Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (£222.5k), Christopher Nicholson (£52.2k), Michael Brehme (£50k), Charles Brand (£25k), Brian Roper (£20k), Neil Sherlock (£20k), Susan Kramer (£15k), Richard Duncalf (£11.7k), Christopher Butler (£10.7k), Giles Wilkes (£10.25k), Richard Brindle (£10k), Stephen Dawson (£10k).
25 Parliamentarians contributed this quarter – those who gave £1k+ I spot-checked were: Christopher Davies MEP (£2k), Vincent Cable MP (£2.8k), John Barrett (£1.8k), Nick Harvey (£3.2k), Lynne Featherstone (£1.2k), Lord Goodhart (£1.2k), Martin Horwood (£1.2k), John Leech (£1.2k), William Rennie (£2.4k), Adrian Sanders (£1.2k), Sir Robert Smith (£1.2k), Paul Holmes (£1.16k), Phil Willis (£1.45k), Daniel Alexander (£1.2k), Annette Brooke (£1.2k), Alan Reid MP (£1.05k), Ross Finnie (£1.3k), Tavish Scott (£1.04k), Michael Rumbles (£1.02k), Mick Bates (£1.66k), Peter Black (£1.66k), Eleanor Burnham (£1.66k), Michael German (£1.66k), Jenny Randerson (£1.66k), Kirsty Rees (£1.66k).
Since 2004 – and most notably in 2005, with that Michael Brown donation – the party’s annual donations have never dipped below £2m. The trend continued again in 2009, with some £3.67m received – that’s over 50% more than was raised in 2008. Indeed, 2009’s fourth quarter donations topped £1m for the first time since 2006. Impressive stuff, at least comparatively speaking.
Let’s see if some of the party’s celebrity backers (Colin Firth, Helena Bonham-Carter et al) will help make 2010’s first quarter even more impressive. After all, the party needs money like never before right now. And of course all of us have the opportunity to make a difference by backing Lib Dem Voice’s election appeal in support of five candidates in some of the toughest general election battles. If you haven’t made a donation yet, please make today the day you do 🙂
I said compararatively speaking … in 2009, the Tories received approaching £27m in donations, and the Labour party over £15m. Think about those figures for a moment. The Tories raised almost ten times as much as the Lib Dems, Labour more than four times as much. And this year is no one-off: the same thing happens each and every year to varying degrees.
And yet, despite this massive disparity, the Lib Dems regularly poll more than one-fifth of votes in national elections. It is, actually and genuinely, a pretty remarkable achievement. So why not make a donation today – yes, it’s that link again! – and help close the gap?
Here are the full Lib Dem donation figures, 2001-09:
2009, Q1 = £790,075
2009, Q2 = £1,088,083
2009, Q3 = £747,658
2009, Q4 = £1,045,817
2009 = £3,671,633
2008, Q1 = £385,931
2008, Q2 = £635,435
2008, Q3 = £519,823
2008, Q4 = £875,611
2008 = £2,416,800
2007, Q1 = £607,457
2007, Q2 = £631,451
2007, Q3 = £731,364
2007, Q4 = £853,387
2007 = £2,823,659
2006, Q1 = £219,915
2006, Q2 = £233,669
2006, Q3 = £571,715
2006, Q4 = £1,643,859
2006 = £2,669,158
2005, Q1 = £3,709,897
2005, Q2 = £713,656
2005, Q3 = £174,751
2005, Q4 = £317,188
2005 = £4,915,492
2004 = £2,374,319
2003 = £1,223,135
2002 = £618,783
2001 = £1,052,010
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10 Comments
“25 Parliamentarians contributed this quarter”
And the rest? That suggests less than a quarter of our (elected) parliamentarians are making a “tithe”. However the party has passed mandatory rules regarding councillors doing that?
Suggested isn’t the same as implemented, and MPs do spend their own money on things other than the central fund – not least of which being their own campaign. It’s more subtle than ‘contributing vs non-contributing’, they also have to decide what things to contribute to.
Andrew – AIUI the figures include donations to local parties as well (eg all of Vince’s donations go to the Twickenham & Richmond local party)
To be fair, they don’t neccaserillly tithe/donate monthly, and may just to big annual or pre-may donations which just happen not to have fallen in this quarter.
Donations which appear on the December return (the one just published) as £1.2k are almost certainly standing orders of £100 per month. They only get declared when they go over £1000 for the year. And there were a very large number of them on the full list, as well as the Parliamentarians listed
As the author of the report you have actually named 26 Parliamentarians (Susan Kramer on your first list) and from memory as I haven’t got the report at home .. Norman Baker, Alan Beith, Tim Farron, John Hemming, Baroness Sharp, Margret Smith MSP and Lord Tope should have been there too…. plus Jo Swinson on the non-cash.
IWell certain MPs, Huhne, Fetaherstone, Hemming are known to be very wealthy. I’m sure a check of the register of members interests would show others. It would be nice if they could be a bit more generous – especially if it was to set up a fund to provide a regular income. The temptation is always to spend everythingon the election, but really that is not a sensible approach. The Michael brown money was IMHO squandered on pointless bill boards.
Dominic – I agree. Someone might have contributed last May or be planning a big donation for their re-election campaign.
I won’t name names (as they may fall into the latter category) but put some of our MPs names into the register of donations and its clear that some donate a lot and some none at all.
Many Commons colleagues have in the past, or still do, subsidise their staffing or office costs budgets out of their own pocket. Such subsidies are not recorded publicly. So don’t assume those who do not appear in the list are not giving in different ways, just as those on the list may also be giving in other ways as well.
Adrian
But that isn’t a donation to the party – which was the specific recommendation of the Bones Commission.
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