Election latest: More bad news for Tory campaign as latest donation figures released (2024)

By Tom Cheshire, online campaign correspondent

If you want a good idea of what matters to each party - its deepest desires, its darkest fears - look at where it's spending money.

What it shows is a story of Labour spending big and spending everywhere, as it pursues a plausible supermajority, while the Conservatives retreat to fight for some of their heartland constituencies, and spend much less.

It shows the current state of play for all parties across the country. The map shows which is the biggest spender in each constituency - which parts of the country they're fighting to win, or not to lose.

The map was created by Who Targets Me (WTM), which tracks digital political advertising and has partnered with Sky News as part of our online campaign team.

"Our map of advertising activity shows where the parties have targeted their Facebook and Instagram ads in the last week," Sam Jeffers, executive director of WTM, says.

You can read more from Sky News below:

Follow the money, the saying goes. But the money isn't following the Conservative Party in this selection campaign. Tory donors are on strike.

The Conservatives are not only being massively outgunned financially by Labour, but also by Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, according to new figures.

The slump in donations, compared with the millions pouring into Tory coffers during Boris Johnson’s 2019 campaign, suggests massive disillusionment in Rishi Sunak among Tory tycoons and millionaires.

Why throw good money after bad? That's a question the Conservatives'’ former big money donors must be asking themselves with Mr Sunak’s campaign appearing to lurch from one crisis to another.

And the party's dismal showing in opinion polls, along with blunders like the PM's D-day fiasco and now a scandal over insiders accused on betting on the election date, suggest the funding gap will get even worse.

The latest figures from the Electoral Commission, generally a fairly toothless watchdog, are the first since Mr Sunak’s calamitous snub to D-day veterans and also confirm that Nigel Farage’s comeback has boosted Reform UK’s finances.

The figures are staggering. Usually league tables of donations to political parties put the Tories way out in front. Not this time. Donations between June 6 and 12 reveal the Conservatives are in fourth place. That’s relegation form.

In that week, Labour received a breath-taking £4,383,400, largely due to a £2.5m cheque from Lord Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty. That means £5.3m in donations rolled in in the first two weeks of the campaign.

A big Blairite, Lord Sainsbury is a long-time donor who stopped giving when Jeremy Corbyn was leader. But now he’s back. Big time. Labour’s other big donor, Autoglass windscreens tycoon Gary Lubner, gave £900,000.

Also, at election time the general secretaries of the big trade unions usually get their cheque book out and hand over six or seven-figure sums. But in June 6-12 the only union donation was £100,000 from the train drivers’ union Aslef.

That means Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party is relying more now on millionaires than union barons for its election fighting fund. The Labour leader says the party’s changed. Well, this is certainly a very significant change.

But at what price? Are the millionaire donors buying influence on Labour’s tax policy: capital gains tax, wealth taxes and so on? And what will the tycoons’ millions mean for Angela Rayner’s workers’ rights proposals?

The Conservatives’ election war chest, meanwhile, is almost bare and their finances as dire as their opinion poll ratings: just £292,500 in June 6-12 and only £882,000 in donations in the first two weeks of the campaign.

The resurgent Reform UK raised £742,000 in donations, largely from two £250,000 donations from a company called Britain Means Business, which just happens to be run by Richard Tice, the former leader.

Mr Tice may have been elbowed aside by Mr Farage, who’s replaced him as leader, but he’s still personally bankrolling the party, which claims to have received £1.5m since Mr Farage bounced back.

Reform UK have also benefitted from a showbiz donation from celebrity supporter Holly Valance, the pop star and former Neighbours actor Holly Valance, who had a hit with "Kiss Kiss" and donated 50,000 smackers.

Even the Liberal Democrats, with £335,000, received more than the Conservatives, including £100,000 in the will of late party donor and former lawyer John Faulkner.

That should pay for more silly Sir Ed Davey stunts.

But for Mr Sunak, facing a donors' strike, perhaps he should tap up his millionaire heiress wife Akshata Murty. Between them, according to The Sunday Times rich list, they’re worth £651m, more than the King.

Or perhaps not. What was that about throwing good money after bad?

The Labour Party raised almost £4.4m in the second full week of the general election campaign - close to 15 times the amount brought in by the Tories.

Rishi Sunak's party took in just under £300,000 between 6 and 12 June.

Reform UK raised more than double that, with £742,000 taken.

However, £500,000 of this money was handed over by Britain Means Business - a company run by Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice.

The Liberal Democratsalso raised more than the Conservatives, with £335,000.

The Green Party was given £20,000.

The Politics Hub is now under way, hosted by political correspondentAli Fortescue.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Joining Ali tonight are:

• Alison McGovern, the shadow employment secretary
• Richard Graham, member of 1922 Committee
  

And on her panel are:

• Guto Harri, former director of communications for Number 10 under Boris Johnson;
• Caroline Flint, the former Labour MP for Don Valley.

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

Our deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico's Jack Blanchard are back with their guide to election day.

This is day 30 of the campaign. Jack and Sam discuss the betting scandal clouding the Tory campaign, last night's Question Time and Labour's Rachel Reeves opening up.

👉Tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam's wherever you get your podcasts👈

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has called for the Tories and the prime minister to "come clean" and disclose further details of alleged gambling rule breaches.

During a visit to a manufacturing technology centre near Coventry, Ms Rayner was asked if Rishi Sunak should confirm how many people were known to be involved in the election date betting row.

"I think he should be up front if he knows what the details are," she replied.

"He should explain and inform people about that. I think it's worse for the Conservative Party that they've got this drip-feed approach.

"I think they should just come clean and tell people what's happened."

Nigel Farage has reiterated that he blames the West and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine - as he confirmed that he previously said he "admired" Vladimir Putin as a statesman.

Speaking to the BBC, the Reform UK leader was asked about his previous comments on the conflict.

Asked about Russia invading Ukraine in 2022, Mr Farage told Nick Robinson that he has been saying there would be a war in Ukraine due to the "ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union" since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

He said this gave Mr Putin a reason to tell the Russian people the West was "coming for" them and "to go to war".

The Reform leader confirmed his belief that the West "provoked" the conflict - but added that it was the Russian president's "fault".

Mr Farage was also asked about comments he made previously about Mr Putin being the statesman he most admired.

Mr Farage said he disliked him, but added: "I admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take control of running Russia."

"This is the nonsense, you know, you can pick any figure, current or historical, and say, you know, did they have good aspects?" he added.

"And if you said, well, they were very talented in one area, then suddenly you're the biggest supporter."

Our weeknight politics showPolitics Hubwill be live on Sky News from 7pm with ourpolitical correspondentAli Fortescuehosting this evening.

The fast-paced programme dissects the inner workings of Westminster, with interviews, insights, and analysis - bringing you, the audience, into the corridors of power.

Joining Ali tonight:

• Alison McGovern, the shadow employment secretary;
• Richard Graham, member of 1922 Committee;

And on her panel are:

• Guto Harri, former director of communications for Number 10 under Boris Johnson;
  
• Caroline Flint, the former Labour MP for Don Valley.
  

Watch live on Sky News, in the stream at the top of this page, and follow live updates here in the Politics Hub.

WatchPolitics Hubfrom 7pm every night during the election campaign on Sky channel 501, Virgin channel 602, Freeview channel 233, on theSky News websiteandappor onYouTube.

From first past the post to voter ID, here's everything you need to know about the general election in less than five minutes.

Government borrowing was less than expected in May, new figures have revealed.

Net borrowing - the difference between public sector spending and income - was £15bn, an increase of £0.8bn on the same time last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Friday.

The amount is below the £15.7bn forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and less than expected by economists.

However, it was still the highest amount for the month of May since theCOVID-19 pandemic.

The ONS also said that public sector net debt, excluding public sector banks, was provisionally estimated at 99.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in May - the highest level since March 1961.

The figure is also 3.7 percentage points higher than during the same period last year.

Economists said it showed that whoever wins theupcoming general electionwill face a string of potential financial challenges.