Where do political parties get their money from?
There are many different types of body that can give money to a political party – such as individuals, companies, trade unions, unincorporated associations and the state. I’ve used the data from the Electoral Commission on political donations from 2001-2008 to produce the following charts, which show the value of the donations coming from each category of donor for each year. It looks only at recorded donations, and does not include other sources of income (commercial loans, income from commercial activities, etc). I’ve also missed out the data for 2009 as the figures for the last quarter of that year have yet to come in. The figures show how the three main parties rely on different types of donor and how the main sources of income have in some cases changed over the years. The chart above confirms that the unions give more money to Labour than any other type of donor – and that this has been consistent over the last decade. It also shows how individuals are a substantial source of fun
