THE SNP took a donation of £225,000 after a supporter left them the money in a will, new records from the Electoral Commission have revealed.
On Thursday, the elections watchdog published details of the £17.1 million in donations and public funding given to the UK’s main political parties in quarter two of 2026. Covering April, May, and June of this year, the quarter takes in the Holyrood and Senedd elections, as well as local elections in parts of England.
The records show that the SNP were gifted £225,000 in a bequest from one Donald Stevenson on May 29, 2026.
Elsewhere, the Argyll-based businessman Donald Irwin-Houston donated £200,000 to Scottish Labour, £75,000 to the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and £20,000 to the Conservatives in three donations on April 13 and 22.
Overall, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK took the most in donations, totalling £5.3 million. The bulk of the money came from the crypto billionaire and convicted criminal Ben Delo, who donated £4m. Scottish investor William Alan McIntosh, the founder of Emerald Investment Partners, gave the party £100,000.
Labour came in second on £3.6m. This included £650,000 from businessman Gary Lubner, £550,000 from accountancy director Ali Mosawi, £650,000 from David Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, and a combined £400,000 from Suneil Setiya and Greg Skinner, the founders of Quadrature Capital.
The Tories accepted £2.8m in donations and the LibDems took £1.4m.
Restore Britain, former Reform MP Rupert Lowe’s far-right party, took £250,000 – a single donation from IT entrepreneur Simon Galbraith’s Cade Hill Investments. The party then funnelled around £45,200 to “Great Yarmouth First” – a smaller party which Lowe chairs – though £35,200 was in non-cash donations.
The Scottish Greens received no reportable donations during the period, while the English and Welsh Greens took in £115,000.
Parties must report donations accepted above £11,180 (or over £2230 for accounting units such as "Scottish Labour"), or smaller donations from a single donor which exceed that reporting threshold when taken together.
There were 402 registered political parties in Great Britain and Northern Ireland during quarter two of 2026, and 70 were required to submit a quarterly donation report, the Electoral Commission said.
Jackie Killeen, the watchdog’s director of electoral administration and regulation, said: “Political parties accepted over £17m in donations in the second quarter of 2026.
“The UK political finance system has high levels of transparency, and we know that voters care about where parties get their money from. This publication is a key part of delivering this information to voters.
“However, we know there are parts of the system that need strengthening, and we have highlighted the need for changes to the law for some time.
“The UK Government’s proposed reforms to the political finance regime in the Representation of the People Bill will help strengthen donation controls and ensure voters have confidence in the political finance system. We are continuing to work with the government so that these changes are evidence based and workable in practice.”
