A £5m financial boost from Egypt’s billionaire Mohamed Mansour helped the conservative party secure £12.3m in donations between January and March, more than doubling its inflows from the previous quarter.
The Electoral Commission released data showing political donations in the first quarter on Thursday, as parties prepare for the next general election due next year.
Property businessman Graham Edwards and textile tycoon Amit Lohia made large donations, £2m each, to the Conservative party.
The opposition Labor party, which beat the Conservatives in the second half of 2022 donation contest, received £5.9m, down from £7.2m in the previous quarter. The Liberal Democrats received £1.6m, compared to £1.4m.
The data showed a continuation of an upward trend in Conservative fundraising since Rishi Sunak became party leader and Prime Minister in October 2022. The Conservatives took in £4.9m from ‘October to December, from 3.0 million pounds from July to September.
Major Conservative donors said Sunak’s leadership had boosted their confidence in the party, after a period of turmoil under his predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Mansour praised Sunak’s five priority promises, spanning the economy, the NHS and migration, for providing the government with “purpose and accountability”.
The business magnate told the Financial Times that he respected a leader “who sets out a clear program and is willing to be judged on its delivery.”
Edwards, chief executive of Wales & West Utilities, told the Daily Telegraph that Sunak was a “man who can bring his party together and get things done”.
Labor’s biggest donor in the first quarter of the year was the Unite trade union, which gave more than £1 million, and Gary Lubner, the former South African boss of a glass repair company in Autoglass cars, which donated £500,000.
Lubner told the FT this week that he planned to give Labor £5m in total to fight the next election, in a bid to put Sir Keir Starmer in power “for a long time”.
Labor also received £180,000 from prominent investor Stuart Roden, best known for his 17 years at Lansdowne Partners, one of London’s oldest hedge funds.
Of its union sponsors, Labor also received £355,168 from Unison, £290,125 from GMB and £215,740 from Usdaw.
The Liberal Democrats’ biggest donation was to their Scottish party, which received £200,000 from Peak Scientific Instruments, a company that makes gas generators.
All parties are eager to build up their campaign war chests as the general election approaches, with evidence of further big donations in the second quarter of this year.
Hedge fund manager Alan Howard, founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management, has donated £1m to the Conservatives since late March, according to a person familiar with the matter. Brevan Howard declined to comment.
