Political funding down
New figures on political donations show a significant drop in contributions this quarter.
The drop is surprising considering that elections for the London mayor, local government and the European Parliament are being held on June 10th.
Figures published on Wednesday by the Electoral Commission revealed total donations of £6,696,013 for 10 parties in the first quarter of 2004.
This compares to £8,368,388 for the previous quarter and £8,023,741 for the first quarter last year.
The largest amounts received in donations went to the Conservative Party at £ 2,645,283, closely followed by the Labour Party at £ 2,546,400.
The Conservatives have maintained donations at roughly this level for the past few quarters, but it is a drop for the Labour Party from £4,107,340 last quarter.
The biggest proportional increase in this round of donations appears to have gone to the United Kingdom Independence Party.
They received £251,750 in this round, up from £117,219 last quarter, more than doubling their funding.
In their report the Electoral Commission also clears the Labour Party of any untoward behaviour in previous failures to declare donations on time.
They said they are “satisfied that the Party Treasurer took all reasonable steps and exercised due diligence to meet the reporting requirements for the relevant periods.”
The Commission though said they would work with the Labour Party to “improve their compliance arrangements and to monitor closely for any systemic failure to meet the reporting requirements of the Act”
£12,892 of the funding given to the Green Party was also returned as impermissible. The majority of the money had been from the British Council.
It is believed the donation, intended to fund a European Young Greens Conference, was returned because it breached the £10,000 limit set for unregistered organisations.
