43 out of 50 top political donors gave to Tories

Forty three of the 50 biggest political donations made by individuals last year went to the Conservative Party, according to the annual Sunday Times Rich List (£).

Forty three of the 50 biggest political donations made by individuals last year went to the Conservative Party, according to the annual Sunday Times Rich List (£).

Seven out of the top ten political donors also gave to the Conservative Party.

The biggest donor of all was metal dealer Michael Farmer, who handed over £1.3 million to the party. The second highest Tory backer was hedge fund boss Lord Fink, who gave £289,240.

The second and third biggest donors to political parties were respectively Lord David Sainsbury, who gave £519,940 to the Labour Party, and Andrew Rosenfeld, who gave £440,000 to Labour.

Of the top 20 donors, however, all but five of the biggest donors gave to the Tories.

Five rich backers gave money to Labour and two of the top 50 donations went to the Lib Dems.

Last year it was revealed that 248 of the top 1,000 individuals featured on the 2012 Rich List had financially supported the Conservative Party since 2001.

8 Responses to “43 out of 50 top political donors gave to Tories”

  1. OldLb

    And look at the unions.

    Cash for seats.

    ie. We pay you, and you have to put our candidates on your list.

    Worse that the Tories by a long way.

    As for the lib dems, they are just laundering the proceeds of crime.

  2. Paul Hilton

    It’s time that political parties had just one source of income – subs from individual members.

  3. montecristo5000

    More evidence, if it were needed, that we do not live in a democracy.

  4. blarg1987

    I accept it is wrong, but I think paying a bribe to a political party and asking them to change a policy which can affect millions of people for personnal gain ranks higher as a concern.

  5. OldLb

    And if you do this as a paid lobby, I presume you think that’s wrong to. I do.

    However, that’s exactly what the unions are doing, and in this case going one step further.

    They are paying for their lobbiests to be put on the list. I haven’t heard of any cases of where people have paid to be candidates for the Tories or Lib Dems.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if there were the odd case either. However, there is clear evidence here of that going on with Labour.

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