Labour got more donations than other parties combined

10 comments

1. But the Tories, in government, gave more donations to friends than all the other parties combined.

   That’s a _lot_ worse.

2. People acting like it hasn’t been an elitist party for years full of career politicians. Best people can do is say ‘the tories were as bad’ to justify it.

3. I’ve never understood why this is acceptable at all in politics when we wouldn’t accept it elsewhere.

   Imagine a huge organisation like TFL paying police officers to put fair evasion at the top of their priorities…

4. Which is a good thing. Labour has been asking people to donate to them so that they can continue funding their ads during the campaign

5. Hardly surprising. It was clear they were going to be the next government, so donors were obviously going to flock to them. People want influence for their money, and influence in the government is way more useful than the opposition.

6. When it was apparent that the Tories would lose, the donors stopped donating because….where is the return on investment? What influence would they buy? Zilch. Another indication of the strength of Starmer’s achievement to get a stonking majority without the press on side and against the money machine.

7. I mean, not surprised, tory donors didn’t want to waste their money.

   It must be highlighted that the tories received twice as much in 2019 as labour received this time, which is wild.

8. Overall, the trend was in the right direction at least:

   > Final totals from the elections watchdog show the Conservatives raised just under £1.9m, less than a tenth of what they raised during the 2019 election, when the party declared over £19m.

   Labour took in £9.5m.

9. Big business, buying influence with the people most likely to be elected.

   It’s been a thing since at least the Thatcher years – used to be, Labour could avoid a bunch of the dodgier “donations” with the union donations, and the membership fees, but Starmer and his left-purge has well and truly gutted that.

   And yes, I would much rather Labour be beholden to the unions, than Labour be beholden to the likes of Lord fucking Sainsbury’s.

10. For a time who doesn’t get it. This is a massive negative. It means the party has been bought and paid for.