It’s an election year, which means political donations are up.

And this is because Frank Hester’s alleged commentsHe reportedly said Labor MP Diane Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” after donating £10m to the Conservative Party.

But what are the specific rules for donating? Will they change as a result of the election? Who gets the most money? Why do people donate? Can parties return funds?

Here we explain:

What are the rules for donating?

Politics and money are a rabbit hole that Lewis Carroll would have been jealous of, and the British system is no exception.

One of the most important things to note is that the scale of these numbers is much smaller than in the United States—tens of millions rather than billions.

A key difference is that donations to members of Congress are not the same as donations to political parties.

MPs must declare all their interests on a public register, which can be used Sky News Westminster Account Tool.

From this, we know that Frank Hester’s The Phoenix Partnership donated a £15,900 helicopter flight to Rishi Sunak late last year.

His company donated £5 million and he personally donated £5 million. conservative party itself.

The rules for these donations require that all donations over £11,180 need to be declared.this Recently added The threshold is £7,500.

Money donated to parties in this way goes into their accounts, but Professor Justin Fisher, an expert on political finance at Brunel University, said the money does not need to be “ring-fenced”.

That’s why there’s no way to see what Mr. Hester and his company’s donated money was spent on.

The body responsible for regulating and setting financial standards for donations and political parties is the Electoral Commission.

read more:
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Are there different rules for elections?

In short – yes, there are many different restrictions.

The move to raise the threshold for reporting donations is part of an effort to update financial restrictions that have not changed in two decades.

Spending limits for political parties during elections have also been increased. For a party contesting all 650 seats in the UK, spending rose from around £18m to just over £35m.

However, with no party contesting every seat, the effective limit is just over £34m.

According to the Electoral Commission, this applies to expenditure on certain activities in the 365 days before the election.

Confusingly, it is impossible to know the start date of this period because the government can call an election at any time, so in November 2023 the Electoral Commission encouraged political parties to “act as if they are in a regulated period from now on”.

Other changes include how often parties must report contributions.

Under normal circumstances, data is released quarterly. Posts are published weekly after elections have been held and Parliament has been dissolved.

There are also limits on how much future MPs can spend during elections.

Each constituency has a limit based on the number of people living there.

Those hoping to be elected must declare all expenditure, as well as any donations over £50 received by the candidate.

Who donated the most – and why?

The biggest donors to political parties can be easily identified via the Sky News Westminster account interface.

It is dominated by individuals, unions and a handful of companies.

Topping the list is supermarket heir Lord David Sainsbury, who has donated more than £13m since the last election, including £5.1m to the Labor Party and £800m to the Labor Party million pounds. liberal democrats.

He is not to be confused with his cousin, the late Lord John Sainsbury, who donated £10.2 million to the Conservative Party during the same period.

Next up is Unite, which has donated £10.7m laborand provided hundreds of thousands of pounds to Labor MPs.

Since 2019, the GMB union and Unison have each donated around £6 million to the Labor Party.

Businessman Graham Edwards donated £5.2 million to the Conservative Party during this period.

Next on the list is Mr Hester’s Phoenix Partners, which has donated £5.2m, including helicopter flights to Mr Sunak.

Mr Hester also personally donated £5 million to the Conservative Party.

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Professor Fisher explained that corporate giving used to be more common than individual giving, but that is now difficult to justify in an age when spending plans have to pass through powerful boards.

Instead, companies can benefit from different, less expensive (on balance sheet) efforts, such as lobbying or hosting events.

Donors tend to hand over cash or gifts because they want to see the party win and thereby enhance their status, or because of previous affiliations. Or a person may simply be politically aligned with the party in question.

Can the party involved refund the money?

Again, the short answer is yes.

There have been calls for the Conservatives to return money given to them by Mr Hester or his company.

Political parties can spend the money as they choose – which may include giving it back or donating it to charity.

This is not the first time there have been calls for the return of funds.

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The Lib Dems are facing calls to return funds donated to them by Michael Brown, who lives in Mallorca but provided the money through a UK-based company – something the rules do not allow.

The Electoral Commission investigated but took no further action. Mr Brown was later convicted of fraud.

In 2002, Labor faced calls to return donations from publisher Richard Desmond because his publications were “insulting to women”.

The one time money did come back was when Labor accepted a £1m donation from Formula One chairman Bernie Ecclestone in 1997, shortly before it came to power.

At the time, the donation was not made public because it was not requested. However, Labor does have a policy when it comes to announcing donations.

After coming to power, the Labor Party announced that it would ban tobacco companies from sponsoring all sporting events.

However, following talks with Mr Ecclestone, the government proposed excluding Formula 1 from the ban.

The donation later became public, sparking a political scandal and the party promised to return the money.

In March 1998, Ecclestone cashed a check for £1 million written to him by the Labor Party.

This shows that the money can be returned if there is a will.