Conservative donors have poured more than £2.5m into key election battlegrounds to shore up support for MPs, such as Liam Fox and Penny Mordaunt, who are in danger of losing their seats.
The 2024 election will be the highest-spending UK contest, after the government raised national election limits to £34m per party – leaving the Conservatives and Labour in an arms race to raise cash.
Tory candidates and their associations in some of the most closely contested seats have been bringing in £50,000–£100,000 from donors over the last year, as tight local spending limits kick in only during the last five weeks of the campaign.
A last-minute splurge by candidates is expected next week before the campaign deadline of 30 May. MPs and activists across the parties said they were rushing out mailshots before the regulated period for spending kicks in, and tens of thousands of pounds were being spent on targeted letters and surveys.
A briefing pack for Conservative candidates, shared with the Guardian, urges them: “Spend as much as possible between now and 30 May getting targeted social media adverts and campaign material out. This is important, as whatever you can deliver and post between now and 30 May will not count towards candidate election expenses.”
Experts warned that the parties were increasingly getting their funds from a small number of big donors with the power to influence results in marginal seats – despite Labour’s commanding lead in the national polls.
Data from the MPs’ register shows Simon Clarke, who is defending Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland against Labour, has been given more than £100,000 by donors in the last year, while the Treasury minister, Bim Afolami, defending Hitchin and Harpenden against the Liberal Democrats, has brought in more than £115,000, which he is understood to have raised himself.
“My seat was changing so much, with 50% from rural Bedfordshire, so I knew I would have to get myself known amongst my new constituents,” Afolami said. “We are confident that we will hold the seat, but the Lib Dems are always a very tough opponent – like in 2019, where they had a big surge in share of the vote.”
Penny Mordaunt, considered a future leadership candidate if she keeps her seat in Portsmouth North, has received more than £70,000 from donors, while Fox, the former defence secretary at risk of losing North Somerset to Labour, brought in a similar amount.
Jake Berry, a former party chair thought likely to lose to Labour in Rossendale and Darwen, has taken more than £100,000 in donations.
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are set to spend millions of pounds over the coming weeks on advertising on social media, broadcasting and their campaign tours.
The prime minister is already taking a private charter plane between visits as he crisscrosses the country, and has been criticised for drawing much of his donations over the last year from a few mega-donors. These include at least £10m from the healthcare IT boss Frank Hester, who caused controversy with his remarks about Diane Abbott, and £5m from Mohamed Mansour, a former government minister for the Egyptian military ruler Hosni Mubarak.
Labour has also been attracting more large-scale private donations than at any time in the last 15 years. The former Autoglass boss Gary Lubner has given almost £5m since 2022.
The data also shows that a large number of “red wall” northern seats being defended by the Conservatives have been given money by “unincorporated associations”, which rarely have to declare their donors.
A group called the United and Cecil Club has given almost £150,000 to 27 MPs in marginal seats over the last year, while the Carlton Club political committee, a Tory-linked members’ club, has given £80,000 to 11 MPs.
Labour MPs have not been receiving high donations – just over £500,000 has been raised in total – because most of them are expected to defend their seats comfortably.
However, data from the Electoral Commission shows associations in some of the party’s target seats receiving high sums from donors, including Finchley, Swindon, Stevenage and Stroud.
The national spending limit was quietly raised by the Conservatives in 2023 from £19m to £34m – meaning the parties are engaged in a race to raise and spend far more than ever before this year. Local limits were also increased, allowing candidates to spend on average an extra £4,000 in the five-week regulated period.
A Tory source said significant amounts of literature would be sent out in the next week before the start of the regulated period for local spending.
Tom Brake, the director of the cross-party pressure group Unlock Democracy and a former deputy leader of the House of Commons, said the large rise in the spending limit for the election was “unnecessary and unwanted”.
“It should never have been rammed through. Big money from dubious and anonymous sources is already polluting our politics,” he said. “Now, even bigger, untraceable dark money has the potential to cause untold damage to our democracy. It is time to think the unthinkable and transition to a system of taxpayer-funded political parties. It won’t be popular, but it would stop a small number of super-rich donors exerting undue influence over our politicians and parties, and help clean up our politics.”
Campaign groups are also concerned about the lack of transparency around the provenance of donations from “unincorporated associations”, and the dominance of big cash from a few sources.
Dr Jess Garland, the Electoral Reform Society’s director of research, said a lot of money that would flood in now the election had been called “comes from a small number of individuals”.
“A small number of people have a huge influence on our politics,” she said. “We’ve moved in the wrong direction when it comes to transparency for voters. Elections have moved more and more online, and yet there are still a lot of issues there on how that is reported.
“There are lots of different ways money floods into our politics, like via unincorporated associations, where it’s not entirely clear what the source of the money is. This creates a murky situation which isn’t good for voters.”
Peter Geoghegan, the writer and author of Democracy for Sale, said the rise of donations from a small band of people was “a huge problem and not just a party political question”.
“I think there’s a political question about whether Rishi can raise the record amounts of money the Tories did in 2019, in this campaign, given where he is in the polls,” he said. “But it is remarkable to see how much money they have raised anyway. They’ve taken really big, chunky donations, and we’ve seen the rise of the mega-donor.”
