Companies that donated to Labour awarded £138m in contracts, study finds

20 comments

1. “The study follows a previous investigation by the Guardian that revealed how companies linked to Tory donors had been given billions in public funds since 2016.

   The new analysis shows the pattern has continued under Labour, with eight companies donating more than £580,000 to the party that then received government *contracts worth nearly £138m within two years of their donation (between July 2024 and June 2025)*

   Looking beyond a two-year window, the thinktank found 25 Labour-linked companies had won contracts worth £796.43m since 2001”

2. Only 138 million? Look at Labour even failing at corruption with those rookie numbers.

   Thats the same amount (after inflation) companies paid “Tory Brokers” to land PPE deals in 2020 alone.

3. And how much was awarded to companies that didn’t donate to Labour? The fact that a company donates to a political party doesn’t directly mean there must be corruption…

   Government procurement is a fairly robust process with lots of checks and balances. Those processes being relaxed during a national emergency allowing grifters to earn lots of Mone doesn’t mean that every time the government awards a contract it must be cos they were paid to.

4. £138m is small beer these days, and if political donors were formally excluded from ever winning any contracts then they wouldn’t donate. Be real.

   Have a look at the value of contracts awarded to Tory donors. That’s where the real corruption lies. It’s a mater of scale.

5. And companies that didn’t donate to Labour, how much in contracts have they landed?

6. Companies donating to political parties should be illegal anyways, but the number itself means nothing.

   – Is this 138m more than what they were awarded under previous administrations?

   – was there any specific fishy tender that one can point to?

   – how does it compare with previous administrations and their donors?

   – how much was awarded to Torry backers at the same period?

   I don’t know, 138m sounds like peanuts to me

7. The headline is kinda useless on its own. What proportion of contracts are given out to non-labour donors compared to labour donors?

8. Proof, as if it were needed, that politicians are all self-serving

9. ITT: “It’s OK when Labour do it, just focus on when the Tories did it”

10. No surprise, large companies able to donate a portion of funds are also likely to be bidding on large contracts, some of them are bound to be awarded them at some point, that’s just the law of averages.

11. Do we not get yet , that’s how shit works, no matter who’s in power

12. Mandelson’s nickname was “The Cash Magnet” for bringing in hefty donations from private companies that were later awarded government contracts. His protégé, McSweeney, is essentially running the party, and Mandelson still wields enormous influence, securing the US Ambassador role despite his well-known friendship with Epstein, which continued even after Epstein’s convictions. People are being wilfully naïve if they think this is a nothing story. The Labour right were always far too close to private business interests.

13. Am I missing the point here?

    I didn’t think the problem was with Tory donor being given contracts, it was Tory donors being given contracts for things they have never done in their life. Are people really angry if a healthcare provider is given a healthcare providing contract?

    I thought the issue was with Tory donors who previously made ice cream being given contracts to provide flu vaccines? That is obviously an exaggeration but you get the point.

    I cannot see any evidence of the latter occuring here?

14. That’s less than one COVID contract awarded by the Toriee

15. Companies who are large enough to tender for government contracts are also the ones large enough to afford to donate to political parties.

    If there’s a disparity between donors and non donors then it’s a story. Otherwise, it’s nothing.

16. A) Companies shouldn’t be donating to parties.

    B) This isn’t very much money in the grand scheme of things. Consider the scale of Tory donor Covid contracts for example.

17. But hey at least they aren’t the Tories? Right? Right….

18. The sad truth is that corruption is now normalised in this country.

    Even in this sub everytime I look more and more people excuse Labour wrongs instead of talking about how corruption and incompetence should be ended instead of allowed.

    You think the Tories were as corrupt in their first government term as their latest and last one?

    No, the tories became more and more corrupt over time(like the frog boiling in the pot analogy).

    Labour came into this government on promises of change and integrity and the more this term goes on more and more questionable things are happening(homeless secretary making people homeless to raise rent, housing secretary breached rules buying house and ambassador to US established links to known pedophile).

    The Tories already boiled the frog over the last 10 years and now lsbour look set to boil more frogs whilst they have power.

19. Sorry, am I crazy, that doesn’t seem like much? I’d like to see a comparison with the amount of contracts for companies that didn’t donate

20. All noses are in the trough, regardless of who’s in power.

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