SNP receives just £4,000 in donations in the first three months of 2023
Meanwhile, both the Scottish Labor Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats received donations totaling more than £200,000.
The SNP’s money came entirely from a single donor, James Murdoch of Strathearn, and came in on February 8, just a week before Nicola Sturgeon resigned.
Also, the latest update of the Political Finance Register reveals that Humza Yousaf’s party received £287,339 in public funding.
The SNP has been rocked by investigations by the Police of Scotland into the party’s finances and funds.
Investigators are looking into whether the £660,000 donations earmarked for a second referendum have been spent on other causes.
Former chief executive Peter Murrell and former treasurer Colin Beattie were both arrested before being released pending further investigation.
Both the party’s headquarters and Ms Sturgeon’s home were searched by police.
CONTINUE READING: DRS: Companies sue Scottish Government over delay
The SNP’s first quarter donations compare poorly to the amounts registered in the comparable period last year when the party received £91,996.
However, this again came from only one donor. William Ritchie left the money in his will.
Most of the Scottish Labor donation, £200,000, came from Peak Scientific.
The global gas generator company, headquartered in Inchinnan, also donated £200,000 to the Liberal Democrats.
The local Labor party in Midlothian North and Musselburgh, where former Gordon Brown adviser Kirsty McNeil is running, also received plenty of donations: £5,000 came from George Bevis, £5,000 from Tom Hay, £3,000 from David Easton and £2,500 from Paul Callaghan.
Meanwhile, the East Lothian Labor Party, whose candidate is former Secretary of State Douglas Alexander, took £5,000 from David Giampaolo and £2,500 from Gordon Dalyell.
Mr Daylell also donated £2,500 to Ian Murray’s Edinburgh Southern constituency Labor Party.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats also received £5,250 from the Scottish Liberal Club and £10,000 from Antony P. Gifford.
CONTINUE READING: Glasgow: Danny Blanchflower: Tories are ‘totally incompetent’ on the economy.
The Conservative Party has now raised more than £12m across the UK.
The Tories’ sum was bolstered by a £5million donation from Mohamed Mansour, the party’s chief treasurer and a former minister in the government of Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The party also received £2million from Indian-born textile magnate Amit Lohia and a further £2million from party treasurer and businessman Graham Edwards.
Its Scottish backers included Dow Investments Ltd, run by businessman Robert Kilgour. He donated £4,166 to the party in each of the three months.
Mr Kilgour also runs the pro-union Scottish Business Group.
They also received £8,400 from Scottish Power.
The largest Labor donation in the whole of the UK was a £500,000 gift from Gary Lubner, former chief executive of the company that owns Autoglass.
Labor also received £2.3m from its union supporters, including £1.1m from Unite and £359,168 from Unison.
Overall, UK political parties received £20.9m in donations and public funding in the first three months of 2023, compared with £12.8m in the first three months of 2022.
Louise Edwards of the Electoral Commission said the release of the figures was key to ensuring transparency.
She said: “We are releasing details of these donations so voters can understand how political parties are funded.”
“We know that transparency in party and campaign funding is important to people, but our research shows that only 24% of people believe party funding is transparent.
“It is clear that publishing this information is not enough. We continue to recommend that the UK Government reform the system to protect parties from those trying to evade the law and to give voters more confidence.”
