Westminster Accounts: 14 MPs given over £250,000 each in campaign donations since the last election
Fourteen MPs have been given more than £250,000 each towards their campaigns and causes, analysis for the Westminster Accounts has revealed.
The senior politicians – from Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats – were all given between £258,000 and £752,800 from various companies and individuals during this parliament, which started in December 2019.
In a tumultuous few years for British political parties, most of the top 20 MPs to receive donations ran for their party’s leadership campaigns, including Sir Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – the three highest recipients.
Search for your MP using the Westminster Accounts tool
All the information on donations is available through parliament’s register of interests, but Sky News and Tortoise Media have collated all the figures for the first time in one database, with total sums and details of which MPs are receiving how much money and from whom.
Sir Keir Starmer is top of the leaderboard for campaign donations, with £752,809 given to him by 67 companies and individuals.
His biggest equal donor is north London barrister Robert Latham, who gave his leadership campaign £100,000 to pull Labour “back from the brink” after the Corbyn years.
Media entrepreneur and Blairite Lord Waheed Alli also gave him £100,000 for his campaign. In November, it was revealed Lord Alli will head up Labour’s fundraising efforts for the next election.
Rishi Sunak comes in behind Sir Keir with £546,043 in donations for his leadership campaign this summer, when he lost to Liz Truss before becoming prime minister when she stepped down.
His largest donor is Northern Ireland industrialist Chris Rea, who gave Mr Sunak’s campaign £100,000 after saying he was “horrified at the prospect of Liz Truss actually implementing her promises as I am numerate and it was clear to me that it would be bad for the UK”.
Rishi Sunak was handed substantial amounts for his leadership campaign. He lost to Liz Truss who later stepped down and he became PM
Donations for MPs not running for leader
Sky News has estimated it takes at least £250,000 to run a leadership campaign, which is reflected in the amounts and reasons given to those who ran.
Out of the top 10 highest donor recipients, seven ran for leader or deputy leader of their party.
But Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, and senior Tories Michael Gove and Brandon Lewis, all had more than £250,000 donated to them despite not running for leader.
Their donations are mainly to support their work and pay for staff.
Ms Reeves has received donations of £441,101 from a variety of individuals, including former Lloyds Bank chairman Sir Victor Blank and Lord Sainsbury, to pay for her staff, while others donated substantial sums so she could pay for research.
Levelling Up Secretary Mr Gove had £336,983 donated to him, including £100,000 from British-German property magnate Zachariasz Gertler and £20,000 from northeast property tycoon Alan Massie, both who have been long-time supporters of Mr Gove’s.
Donor company set up by MP
Brandon Lewis, Northern Ireland Secretary under Boris Johnson and Conservative Party chairman before that, received £266,334.
That includes £40,500 from Norwich-based construction company Bateman Groundworks, whose founder Richard Bateman describes himself as a “disillusioned Tory”.
The former housing minister was also given £28,500 from developers Countrywide Developments and £25,000 by Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a former Putin minister who is a British citizen.
Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron is 11th on the list, with £259,997 in donations but what is unusual is his highest donor – who gave £154,072 for staff and office support.
Faith in Public Ltd was set up by evangelical Christian Mr Farron himself to, he says, fund support for his faith work, including work in parliament on homelessness and refugees, “Christian outreach” and “making the case for faith in the public square”.
Tim Farron was Lib Dem leader from 2015 to 2017 but remains as an MP
The MP told Sky News the money from Faith in Public comes mainly from donations from two charitable trusts and two individuals.
Another notable name on the leaderboard is Jeremy Corbyn, who comes in at 18th with £210,616 in donations despite not running for leadership after stepping down in 2020 after five years as Labour leader.
His biggest donor, with £191,100, is JBC Defence which stands for Jeremy Bernard Corbyn Defence. It was set up and is funded by his supporters to pay for lawyers fighting libel action brought against Mr Corbyn.
World
Body of missing rabbi Zvi Kogan found in UAE – as Israeli PM says he was murdered in ‘antisemitic terror incident’
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
Read more:
Azerbaijan president hails oil and gas as ‘gift from God’
UN climate summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’
The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
Read more:
No 10 indicates Netanyahu would be arrested
‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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